What's Left Of Us
by kat hatake90
Summary: In a dystopian world full of infected, Aubrey relies on Kai to bring her to the fireflies head quarters, but not without their share of turbulence along the way as well as a secret as to why the world needs her to survive. Crossover between beyblade and the last of us. (Kai,oc) (Ray,oc)
1. Chapter 1

**So this is a mixture of beyblade characters in the last of us world. There are no last of us characters. Sorry if I disappointed anyone! I wanted a romance and thought it would be weird to do an old man and a child. Yah that got a bit weird. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy.**

 **A little character info.**

 **Kai: 30 (Joel type character)**

 **Aubrey: 25 (Ellie type character) my oc**

 **Ray: 29**

 **Regan: 27 my of**

* * *

It's been 20 years since the outbreak. 20 long grewling years. Barely anyone remembers how it started. Barely anyone is left alive. Children are orphaned, and parents are now childless. Small communities were built for safety after shit hit the fans, but they weren't really safe. The fireflies saw those communities governed by martial law, not as a place to survive but a place to slowly die. The military ruled with no one in charge of them, no orders coming down the chain of command, everyone just barely making it. Hope lost for any cure to be found and change to happen. But change was about tohappen and the fireflies who never gave up are going to do everything they can to make sure that that happens. When you find yourself lost in the darkness, believe in the fireflies.

"Hey!"

Ray comes out of his daze and looks over to his friend Budd. "Hm?"

"Where did you go this time?" Budd playfully hits Ray on the back of the head. "We have a job to do. Did you even hear anything that I said?"

"Not a word."

"Jesus Ray. You scare me when you space out. Runners and clickers would have to eat you before you get out of your daze." Scans the crowd of people waiting in line for food rations. "Have you heard about the recent food ration cards getting stolen? People are suspecting the fireflies."

"Yah. The fireflies are ruthless. But are they so wrong to try and change how we ration food?" Budd looks at him with disgust.

"You're kidding me right? They want to restore the world to as it was old. The old is what got us here in the first place. Careful what you say out loud to other people Ray. You might be killed just for saying something like that."

Ray laughs it off and shrugs his shoulders. "Not like I mean anything by it Budd." A truck in the distance explodes and the echos of people screaming can be heard. Ray frowns. "More and more riots have been happening lately. At the rate the fireflies are going, they may just end up blowing up the walls, killing everyone." Voices from his radio go off, he quickly scans the area for any suspicious people then radios back, "all clear over here."

* * *

A tall this woman with auburn hair and hazel eyes to match, frantically pacing back and forth in an old storage room.

"God dammit, where the hell is he? He was supposed to be here an hour ago." The door to the storage room opens and in walks a woman of small stature. She stood a good foot shorter than the woman ready to gouge her own eyes out.

"Well at least you're on-time, Aubrey. Your God damn escort was supposed to be here already so I could brief him."

Aubrey ran her fingers through her dirty blond hair and sighed. "Can we go over the plan one more time, Regan? I still don't understand why you and I couldn't just make our way to the fireflies headquarters." Regan gave her a look full of sorrow but before she could speak, Aubrey continued. "You have made the trip several times before! You're the queen of the fireflies and I can hold my own. Besides, how do we even know if we can trust this guy? Especially since you had to bribe him to take this job."

Regan let's out a sigh. "This guy wasn't my first choice… or even my second. We need him to make it. I have lost so many men just getting you this far. And word is, he is one of the best smugglers. We'll be in good hands….at least we better be."

Aubrey gives her a doubtful look just before the door opens.

"Finally!" Regan exclaims.

In through the door walks in Kai Hiwatari. He looks over to Aubrey and grunts. "Not exactly what I was expecting to smuggle."

Regan ignores the comment and proceeds with the introductions. "Aubrey meet Kai, your smuggler, Kai meet Aubrey." She watches as they both distrustfully size each other up. "We are going to be spending a lot of time together so you two better get along."

"This is just another job for him. Transporting merchandise, so to speak. I'm sure we will get along famously." Aubrey says in a sparky tone, but sees the glare Regan gives her and tones down her attitude. "Nice to meet you Kai. Hope we survive this journey. You must be getting it made to take this smuggling job."

"Speaking of…" turns to Regan, "where's my payment?"

Regan pulls out a stack of lifetime supply ration cards and hands it to him. "Your weapons will be waiting for you when you get the job done." Grabs his shoulder to make him look at her. "I really appreciate this, you helping us…in the end, we'll make things better for everyone."

"Hn." Jerks his shoulder back to get out of her grip. "I could care less of your appreciation. This is only for my payment. I'm going on ahead to scope out the area. Meet me at Bigg's before sundown. Be ready with your supplies. And more importantly, don't be late or I'll be heading out without you." The girls watch him as he leaves.

Breaking the awkward silence, Regan scoffs, "well isn't he just peachy keen." Sighs and turns to Aubrey. "Alright, let's go get our supplies."

"How do you know he won't just run off with the ration cards?"

"Because I've heard stories. He always comes through. He…really has nothing to lose," stares at the door Kai left from, "and neither do I."

Aubrey let's out a long sigh. "Well then I guess it doesn't matter. I trust you and I know you know what you're doing."

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 **See you next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Welcome back for chapter 2! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Later on that evening, Ray was taking his leisure time to drink a beer and watch the sunset. He hears footsteps approach behind him and sees his friend and Co worker, Budd, approaching him.

"Ray, your on outer wall patrol tonight." Budd braced himself for the barrage of anger that was already fuming off of Ray.

"Come on. Seriously? I have had that patrol for 3 weeks now. This is bullshit! You keep saying that I only have to do it one more time, we'll one more time just keeps happening." Gives him a sarcastic grin. "Find someone else to do it. I need a night off for once."

Budd sighs knowing that is not fair but the orders keep coming down from somewhere and for the sake of peace, he follows them. "Just shut up and do it."

Ray scoffs and throws a little tantrum by throwing his beer bottle as far as he can. "Fine but this truly will be the last time. I'm god damn serious about going away if you put me on it again."

"I swear to you it will be."

Ray sighs "lucky me." He puts on his uniform and straps on his weapon heads out to the outer wall perimeter.

* * *

Aubrey and Regan sneak past the patrol and make their way to Bigg's as they hear the curfew warning alarm.

"So… here we are…" Aubrey says a bit nervously, "…where our adventures begins. To infinity and beyond."

"Are you ready for this?" Regan says to her with concern written on her face.

"Yah. I'm ready." They walk into Bigg's with Kai waiting just like he said he would.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Pull your hoodie up and keep low to the ground. Kai's and I'm first priority is keeping you safe." Aubrey nods in understanding and pulls up her hoodie.

Kai looks out the windows to check where the patrols are located. "We need to leave now. They are going to be changing shifts soon. That's when we will sneak out."

Regan nods in confirmation and hands Aubrey a gun and some shivs. "Leave the fighting to us. The is only for precaution." Kai lifts his and and waves for them to follow. Regan nods in and turns back to Aubrey. "Here we go. You are to stay in between us the entire time. Stick close to Kai and follow everything he says." She waits for Aubrey to nod, then follows after Kai.

The three of them make their way through various side buildings to avoid being seen by the military. They finally reach the entrance to the tunnel that leads to beyond the wall and into open territory.

Regan is the last to enter the tunnel she turns around and tries to close the entrance but it's heavy and difficult. "Fuck it." She says and catches up with the rest of the crew.

* * *

Ray scans the outer wall checking in occasionally when he spots something off. "Hm? What the hell?" He sees the entrance to a tunnel partially opened. He quickly checks his surroundings, with his gun aimed and ready. "Damn fireflies are gonna end up killing everyone if they keep being so reckless." He goes over to the tunnel and starts to move it back into place when he hears the echoes of footsteps. "Shit! I got a breach in the west side wall perimeter. We have runaways! I need backup!" he yells into his radio as he opens the door and starts pursuing the footsteps.

Regan gasps when she hears something behind her. "Walk faster, there's someone behind us."

Kai crouched for a moment and listens. "Fuck! We are not getting screwed this early. Pick up the pace…now!" Aubrey jumps at his command but listens, staying right on his heels.

"Stop!" Ray commands as he is catching up with them. "I'm warning you!" Shoots a warning shot threw the dark tunnel, blind firing.

Aubrey flinched at the sound of gun fire ringing through her ear drums as more gun shots are fired. "This is not turning out to be a good starts." The ground below her starts to shake. "What's that?"

"The tunnel. It's collapsing." Kai pushes the grate to the outside open and usher then through before they could be smashes by tunnel debree.

Regan puts her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. "That was too close."

Aubrey takes in the outside world. The buildings of Boston were all crumbling. "Wow," She breaths. "It's eerily beautiful."

"Looks like a bunch of crumbling old useless building to me." Kai starts walking. "Come on."

* * *

Back in the tunnel, Ray pushes some debree off of him and coughs from the dust settling in the air. "That was lucky." He stands up and brushes himself off, looking back the way he came in and sees that it's completely cut off. "Nevermind."

He sighs and pushes himself forward through the tunnel. As he approaches the grate, he sees the three escaping civilians. As quietly as possible, he pushed open the grate and sneaks up on them to try and get the angle since he was outnumber.

He bursts out in front of them with his gun ready. "Weapons down and on your knees, hands behind your head!" Adjust his gun for emphasis. He watches as the short woman stresses out, looking to the others as to what they should do. The other two had cold and contemplating looks, expressionless and dangerous.

"Is that really even necessary? I mean, we are already out. Can't you just leave us and pretend this never happened?" The tall woman shushed her.

"You three are way out curfew which is punishable by death, be glad I haven't shot you, yet. Now on your knees! I won't ask again." He watches as the three of them slowly get know their knees, throwing their guns towards Ray. "The three of you are breaking the laws that are set for your safety and protection." Takes out his infection scanner.

"Protection?" The auburn haired girl says angrily. "Protection is shoving guns in our faces and killing innocent people through starvation? I don't think so. This is why there are so many riots.

"Shut up, Regan." The man says. "Don't start."

She scoffs, "don't start? They are the ones that started this, Kai." She glares at Ray as he approaches them to scan them.

This woman is passing me off. Ray shoves the gun into the back if her head while he tests her. "Innocent people, you say? No one in this world is innocent anymore." Goes over to Kai and tests him. "I have back up on the way. Don't get creative or I will shoot you without hesitation." He then goes over to the short woman who, at this point, is sweating profusely and scans her… "oh shit…"

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed! See you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Welcome back! Please enjoy!**

* * *

"… Oh shit…" Ray aims for the kill at Aubrey.

Kai just stares at Aubrey, too shocked to even speak.

She puts up her hands as if her doing that would stop the bullet. "Wait! Wait! I was bit 3 months ago." Sees the skepticalism in his eyes and pulls up her sleeve. "Look… just look!"

" Yah right. The most it takes to turn is 2 days."

Regan steps in front of Aubrey. "It's true. I didn't believe her but I took a chance. I gathered a team for 3 weeks and she never changed in the 3 weeks I have been with her. This is real." Hope and excitement shines in her eyes. "This is what the fireflies have been waiting for. We never gave up."

Ray looks back and forth between the two.

"Please…" Regan pleas, "take a chance. Give us the chance to make the world ours again."

Ray stares at them and contemplates his options. "That's… that's just too crazy. Why should I believe you?"

"You cant." Aubrey lowers her arms and stands up. "But you can take this chance to save the world. Just please, let us go."

Ray closes his eyes for a moment trying to comprehend everything that he is told and looks back up at the with angry determination in his eyes. "No, I won't let you go. I'm not letting you out of my sight… Dammit! I don't even know what to believe in anymore." He sighs and finally lowers his gun. "I'm going to follow you. The second you turn, I'm shooting the three of you."

"When exactly were you planning on telling your escort?" Kai glares at Aubrey.

Before she could answer Regan spoke for her. "It was supposed to be cobfidential. The less people that know, the better. I can't guarantee what people would do to her if they knew. I'm sorry we kept it from you."

"If I find out that this is some kind of set up…"

"It's not." Aubrey interrupted.

Kai ignored her comment. "Let's get going. Especially if your backup is on their way."

Ray nods and follows next to Aubrey. "So where are you guys going, um… sorry what's your name?"

"It's Aubrey. That's Regan and the angry guy is Kai. And we are going to the only place still looking for the cure. The cdc, now run by the fireflies. All the way in Denver Colorado."

"And you three plan on traveling on foot?" Ray questioned.

"What other choice do we have?"

"Maybe a car."

Kai chimed in at that comment. "We're not going to be able to find a car for a while. Rooftops and tunnels are going to be the best options to not be seen my your military friends. Infected is another story…"

Regan glaring at Ray's back. "Aubrey," she commands, "you need to stay close to Kai."

"…Okay." She runs up ahead and stands next to Kai.

Regan stops Ray by standing in front of him and jabs her finger into his chest armor. "I swear to god if you do anything to harm her, I WILL kill you. So fast you won't even have time for your life to flash in front of your eyes."

He smirks at her. "Seems like we all want to kill each other faster than the speed of light. Until then, let's just keep moving. Oh and the name is Ray." As they keep moving they approach an old bank building, what at least the remains of what should have been a bank. "This building looks like it's about to come crashing down if just the weight of a bird lands on it."

Kai climbs up into the building and turns around to help Aubrey up.

Aubrey couldn't help but stare at his muscle as they flexed and contracted to help her up with ease. She couldn't help but look at his back as he helped the others. He was really well built. She guessed that he would have to be strong to have survived for as long as he did especially with the profession of smuggling. His looks really helped out with making him look so hot…. What am I thinking? She shakes her head to get rid of her thoughts as Regan stares at her th confused.

"You alright there?" Aubrey shook her head yes as they continued on.

A loud shrieking shrill pierces through the air. "You hear that?" Regan asked Kai who answered her with a nod.

"What is that?" Aubrey asked.

"Clickers." Kai answered. "Let's hurry up. It sounded far enough away but stay quiet and be vigilant." Aubrey took one last look at the sky as the sun began to rise. They all made their way into the basement of the building. Ray stopped when he noticed a body that was brutally slashed and eaten.

He crouched down to take a better look and then sighs. "He's part of the outer perimeter patrol. They probably know our location."

Regan bends down next to him. "This looks recent too."

Kai jumps down into a gap on the floor. The air turns a murky yellow color. "Spores." Quickly puts on his mask and Ray and Regan follow suit.

As they keep walking through the basement, Aubrey sees an infected becoming a part of the wall. "Guess we know where the spores are coming from."

"Sshh, get down." Kai crouched down and listens against the wall, then sighs in fustration. "Infected and by the sounds of it, a lot. Let turn back."

"We can't." Ray places his radio back onto his vest. "The military is right on our heads."

"Shit." He whispers. He looks over to Aubrey and finally notices that she isn't wearing a mask. "How the hell are you breathing in this crud?"

Aubrey gives him a serious look. "I wasn't lying to you."

Regan chimes in. "Enough with the questions. We need to decide if we are going through the infected or the military. Neither one sounds good, but we don't have a choice."

An idea pops into Aubrey's head. "Or maybe we can have the military do the dirty work for us. If we stay out of the sight of the runners and stay quiet enough so the clickers won't hear, then when the military approaches, we can throw a few bottles towards them to alert the infected."

"That's…" Kai pauses for a moment, "actually not a bad idea."

"Aubrey, make sure you stay close to Kai. Remember that your priority is to stay with Kai, no matter what." Aubrey nods in confirmation.

They walk quietly behind piles of rubble of rubble, only stepping out in the open to shiv a few infected that got to close to comfortable.

"Okay here they come." Ray grabs a nearby bottle and throws it in the direction of the military. The infected scream and starts going crazy towards the patrol. Through the barrage of bullets, the curses and screams of the men could be heard.

"Let's keep moving," Kai whispers. As he leaves the safety of the hiding spot, he doesn't notice a patrolman.

"Huh? Oh shit! Here they are!" The patrolman lines up his gun.

Kai grabs Aubrey's hand and pulls her out of the line of fire. "Run!" Just before the patrolman can fire again, a clicker comes up behind him and bites his necks. Another patrolman comes up and shoots down the clicker.

"Aubrey!" Regan tries to whisper loud enough as she sees them bolting through the basement, unable to follow them with the patrol so close.

"Sshh." Ray puts his hand on her mouth and motions for her to follow him. When they are out of ear shot, he turns to her. "I have a plan but you are going to have to trust me."

* * *

 **I hope I can keep up this pace of uploading. I should probably go back through and make sure I don't have too many spelling and grammars errors. I'm just so excited to write this, I can't stop! See you next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Welcome back! So if you are a fan, I need to start seeing some love please. Let me know if you like it, love it, hate it. I gotta know. I'm not really sure if I should keep continuing this story. With no loves, I feel like I should ditch this story and move on. So please let me know what you think.**

* * *

"Hey guys! Looks like I found myself a sewer rat!" Ray comes out of hiding with Regan struggling to get away from him.

"Oh man Ray, we almost thought you were a goner."

Ray smirks. "Must be my luck."

"Yah, dumb luck. But I'm glad you're okay." Budd comes over and pats him on the back, truly happy to see that his friend is unharmed. Then he looks over to Regan and shines the light in her face. "Well would you look at that. It's Ms Queen of the Fireflies." She spits in his face. Budd steps back and calmly wipes it off. "Let's head back to base camp."

A random soldier approaches him. "Sir, what about the other two?"

"I'll send out a small search party for them. If they don't come up with anything by tomorrow morning then fuck 'em. Let the clickers get them."

* * *

Aubrey is huffing and puffing as she kept getting dragged along underground. The bank building was above an old subway and they were able to break through the spore and get fresh air, out of the other side. "Oh man, fresh air never felt so good."

"That plan was dangerous… but it worked." Kai takes off his mask and takes a deep breath of fresh air. "Looks like your friend didn't make it."

Aubrey quickly turns back to see Regan is no where in sight and frantically rushes back to the tunnel. "We have to go back."

Kai grabs her and holds her back while she struggles against him. "We can't. It's too dangerous and it would be an unnecessary risk. I have my orders and you are my priority, not Regan."

"Fuck orders."

Kai is getting more and more frustrated and tosses him over her shoulder. "From now on, you need to listen to every god damn word I say, or else I really will treat you like merchandise."

"Put me down!" Aubrey keeps hitting his back until she gets tired and goes limp and leans on his back. "Why does everyone keep leaving me?"

Kai stays silent and puts her down. "…sorry." He pats her head like a little kid. "I have no idea where in Denver we need to go but I have an old friend who can help us with that. But first, we need to find a car."

Aubrey wipes off a tear that was peaking out of the corner of her eye. "Do you have an idea where we can find one that works?"

"An idea, yes. But it ain't gonna be easy." He said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna have to pull out all my owed favors for this one. I have an old acquaintance who owes me… he's a bit rough around the edges." He sighs. "Come on then." Aubrey nods and follows after him.

* * *

The two of them have been walking for at least half the day with minimal breaks. With the soldiers still on their tale, they didn't dare stop for very long. But they haven't been across anything. For hours. No soldiers, no infected. Aubrey was starting to get bored. She looked over to Kai but she knew that he wouldn't entertain her, let alone even talk to her. So instead she put her lips into the shape of an 'O' and tried to attempt whistling... and failed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kai looked over at her with a facial expression of both confusion and concern.

"Whistling... well, trying to. I have always wanted to learn how. So, since we are in the middle of nowhere, I decided to try it."

"Well knock it off. We need to stay vigilant."

Aubrey frowned. "Always so serious, even when there is no one around." He ignored her. "You don't really talk much do you?"

"This is just who I am, Aubrey." His tone was starting to express his frustration. "what specific amount is there that someone has to speak? Maybe you just talk to much.

She shakes her head. "Yes, but its a defense mechanism... because I'm always scared of being alone. Everyone i know eventually leaves me. I just want to get to know you before the same happens to you." He stayed silent. "Sooooo... Where is this friend of yours?"

Kai sighed, knowing at this point that she wasn't going to shut up. "A little outside Boston."

"Oh... Is he nice?"

"No."

"Soooo... how did you get started in this smuggling business? Where you an ex bandit?"

"Aubrey! Enough with the questions already." He watched her as she slouched over in disappointment, and he let out an even longer sigh. "I started a few years back when I realized I had nothing left to lose. Plus once this is all over, I'm spending the rest of my days living the retired life. Sooooo..." He snickered at himself mocking her. "How did you get bit?"

"Nothing special. Just like anyone else that gets bit in a safe zone. I was in a restricted area and just got stupid." She smiles, glad that he is actually talking to her.

"Sounds about right. Generally what happens when people feel too comfortable and think they are invincible. They get themselves killed."

"Oh and does that include you Mr smuggler?"

"Heh. No, not me. Otherwise I wouldn't be here." He hears a grumbling sound and immediately ducks down, pulling Aubrey with him and finds some place to hide. "That sounded like infected."

"Pfffft" He looks over at Aubrey horrified.

"I fail to see how that is funny."

"What's funny is, that wasn't infected... that was my stomach."

-.-''''''''''' "If you were hungry you should have said something." Gets out from the hiding spot and finds an old abandoned apartment. "Stay put and let me check this place out."

Aubrey waited, and twiddled her thumbs until he came back for her. "Is it clear?" He nods and she follows him inside where he leads her to one of the apartment units that has the least amount of damage to it.

"We can rest here for the night. But don't get to comfortable."

Aubrey takes off her backpack and pulls out a couple of granola bars. "Want one?"

Kai shakes is head. "No thanks. I'll pass." He then proceeds to pull out a buffet from his jacket.

Her mouth can't seem to come out of the state of 'aw'. "Well... alrighty then. I was starting to think that you were just fat but now i see that it was just food." She then proceeds to enjoy her granola bar to the fullest.

* * *

 **See you next chapter! Leave a comment!**


	5. Chapter 5

_I need to think of a plan and fast. I can't trust this Ray guy with the air that I breath. Come on, Regan, think... think dammit!_ It was nightfall and Regan was handcuffed to an old rusting car with a soldier watching her every move. It wasn't going to be easy but she has been in harder spots than this. She will find a way out... at least she hoped.

Ray comes up and pats the soldier on the back. "Hey man. It's my watch now. Go and get some rest."

"Thank man. I was about the fall asleep." Ray waits till the other soldier is clear out of sight and then proceeds to untying Regan.

"Why are you helping me? It would be easy for you to just turn me in. Then you would live out your days in glory and fame as the hero man who took out the queen of the fireflies." Regan watches his every move.

"You make it sound so tempting." He sighs. "But I'm a bit curious how Aubrey's story will turn out. I've never seen anyone like her. To tell you the truth, I have no idea why I'm helping you. Maybe I'm just selfish and you're the only ticket I have to see this girl create a cure. So since we are in this together, we're going to have to put aside our differences. At least for now." He stares at her in all seriousness.

With those stunning yellow eyes she couldn't help but blush a little. Luckily it was dark out and he wouldn't notice. "R...Right." She felt the slack finally in the ropes that held her to the car and pulls her hands out, rubbing the pain in her wrists away.

"Get ready to run if necessary." He starts taking off his military uniform to leave for his resignation, which left him in his in a wife beater and black pants with black camo boots. Regan took notice of the muscles that were hidden underneath of his uniform which seemed to glisten in the light of the moon. He props it up against the car door and catches her staring. "Like what you see?" He smirks.

Regan, being caught, blushes profusely and turns such a bright red it was like a beacon on the water. "Eh... Wha... No of course not."

Ray laughs. "I'm just messing with you." Hands her a gun. "Come on, lets go before someone notices that you are gone."

As they sneak through the camp, they steal more weapons and Regan grabs her confiscated pack. "We should trek through the night so that we can cover more ground, see if we can catch up to Aubrey and Kai."

"Sounds good. We are almost out of the camp." Ray could literally taste freedom as he approaches the edge of the camp. A _Snap!_ comes from behind him. "Shit…" He quickly turns around with his gun at the ready and hesitates as he sees his long time friend. "Budd…"

"Hey Ray." Budd looks back and forth between Regan and Ray. "What's going on? Where are you going with the firefly?"

Ray closes his eyes. "Come on, Budd. Just turn back and we can go our separate ways. Just pretend you didn't see anything." He looks up with pleading eyes, knowing what he would have to do if things don't go his way.

"I... You know that I can't do that." With regret he slowly raises his gun at them. "I'm sorr..." Before he could finish, Ray shoots him.

Ray watches in slow motion as his one and only person he actually cared for, falls to the ground. "Damn it all..."

"I'm sorry, Ray." Regan pats his arm to try and comfort him.

"Save it." He shrugs away from her and goes over to check Budd's gun. "You god damn idiot... It wasn't even loaded." He throws the gun and without another word, walks out of the camp. Regan takes one last look at Budd, then follows after Ray.

* * *

"No trespassers. Go the fuck away... Sounds friendly. Is this your friend?" Aubrey read the sign hung up on the fence of an old quarantine zone.

"That would be Kenny alright. Now he isn't the kindest to strangers so when we meet him, let me do the talking." Kai climbs over the fence and helps her get down.

"You wouldn't say."

"And don't say anything about..." motions her bite.

"Yah yah yah I got it. Like he would believe me anyways. Are you sure this guy won't just kill us on sight?" She comes across another sign that says _I mean it._ Kai shrugs. "Well that's reassuring."

"Kenny is very antisocial and doesn't like people so, keep a vigilant eye out." They travel through the town till they come to a building that doesn't look completely destroyed by time and other people. "This has gotta be his place. If he is even still alive."

Aubrey uses a shiv go break the lock and open the door. "Hello! Kai's friend?" She walks through the door and feels a string pulled off by her feet. "Huh?" Kai grabs her back just in time for an ax to swing back, almost chopping her head off. "Whoa... That was close."

"What have i said about being careful? Let me go first." He shake his head at her. As he walks through the door, some guy hits him with a baseball bat and starts beating he crap out of him.

"Hey! Get off of him!" Aubrey jumps on the guys back and is about to stab him with the knife until Kai puts his hand up.

"Wait! Wait! Kenny, it's me!" Kenny takes the chance to throw Aubrey off of him and points a gun at Kai's face.

"Do you two dumb fucks know how to read? Shit! How many god damn traps did you set off getting here? Stupid mother fuckers. Get the fuck out!" Kenny was in a clear blind rage at that point.

"Look you don't want to do this." Kai tries to keep himself calm.

"And why the fuck not?"

"Because you owe him some favors. " Aubrey leans up and spits out some blood.

"Favors?" Kenny gives him a confused look. "I don't owe you shit, Kai." Hears some clickers. "Get the fuck in here." He pulls Kai the rest of the way in and locks his door and finally lowers his gun.

Aubrey breaths a sigh of relief and gets up.

Kai looks over to Aubrey to check and make sure she is okay. She nods and he turns back to Kenny. "Thank you Kenny."

"Save it. Now what the hell do you want?" Notices Aubrey looking through his clutter. "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!" Aubrey immediately jumps away from his pile of junk. Kai gives her a warning glare.

Kai takes a long sigh, struggling with his answer. "I pulling out all my favor cards for this... Kenny I need a car."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

Kenny scoffed. "A car? A fucking car? I don't have a car. Just parts." He sighs and starts loading up a couple weapons, then looks over at them seeing that they haven't moved. "Well come on."

"You just said you don't have a car." Kai looked at him confused.

"Yah I know what I said. I have parts. But those parts are in areas I haven't cleared so we are gonna need some more ammo." Kenny takes him through some of the buildings till they reach his supply of ammo. He pulls Kai over to a little bit more private area. "Kai, this isn't like you. Needing a car? It's for that girl isn't it. Why is she so special?"

"Just don't worry about that. I need the car just cuz."

"You're gonna end up getting g yourself killed. You're better off alone. I know I was. I almost got myself killed. I had a uh… partner I guess. Someone I cared about. But fuck him. I'm not dying cuz of him. And you shouldn't for her." Kenny stares at him with his beedy eyes.

Kai sighs. "Thanks for the advice, Kenny. But I know what I'm doing."

Kenny spots Aubrey messing with more of his junk. "Eh hey! What did I say! Jesus like a damn kid. You need to watch her."

"Like a hawk." Kai glares at Aubrey to stop. He loads his gun. "So if this is in an area that you haven't cleared, maybe just the two of us should go." He looks yo Kenny.

"What? No your not leaving me behind. I'm not some delicate princess. I know how to handle myself. My aim is actually pretty damn good. Besides what if something happens here while you're gone. Your supposed to watch me like a hawk remember." She huffs and puts her hands on her hips.

Kenny cracks up. "I think I'm starting to like you. You've got a punk that's for sure. This way then." Climbs out the window. "Beyond this gate is unknown territory. So be cautious. We are heading to the old school. A bus crashed into the side a while ago and no one's touched the battery. At least I hope not."

"Hope?" Kai questions.

"Yah I wouldn't even risk it for myself but fuck it, Kai needs a car." Kenny says sarcastically.

"Let's just go already." Aubrey keeps her gun at the ready.

"Hey we're gonna try and keep this quiet so here. I grabbed an extra one for you." Kai hands Aubrey a bow and a few arrows. "But leave most of it to us okay?" Aubrey nods.

They all crouch down and make their way through the neighborhood. Aubrey watches as Kai takes one after another infected down with precision and perfection. She tightens her grip on the bow and lets it fly into the head of a clicker that was getting too close to Kai. He looks back and nods and thanks you, then grabs the arrow and proceeds.

Aubrey sighs. "We finally made it through that mess."

"We ain't out of the ball park yet." Kenny nods in the direction of the school yard that is scattered with infected. "This is what your typical safe zone looks like now."

After methodically taking out the infected, they come across the problem of getting over the bus that is blocking the only path through the gate to the school. "Here, boost me up. I think I see a ladder up there." Kai helps Aubrey up into the bus, where she pushes down the ladder. Just as she does, a pack of clickers staying coming out of the wood works.

"Shit! Hurry up!" Kai climbs the last after Kenny and they make their way into a window is the school. "This window isn't going to hold up much longer. Kenny hurry up and do your thing." Kai and Aubrey run to the door where infected are trying to bust through.

"It's gone." Kenny is baffled.

Kai grunts against his efforts against the door. "What do you mean it's gone?"

"I mean the battery is fucking gone. Some… someone must have taken it."

"Well don't you have another plan?"

"That was plan A, B all the way to fuckin Z." Kenny is beyond panicking at this point. Being surrounded by infected would have that affect on a person.

Kai quickly looks around, trying to piece together a plan, he would be dawned if he was going to die here. "Let's cut through the school. I'll hold off them off, hurry up and run inside." He nods his head in the direction of the door to Aubrey. She panics a bit, unsure about leaving him alone to hold the door but she complied and bolted through the school doors. When she was clear, Kai jumped off the door keeping them separated from the infected and ran ands fast as he could farther into the school.

Kenny and Aubrey both shut the doors behind him, sticking a metal bar through them. "There, that should hold them off."

Aubrey ran over to Kai hugging him without even thinking, so glad that he was okay and they made it through that mess.

Kenny cleared his throat. "Hate to break up the love nest but we are still not out of the woods." As he said that, they both jumped away from one another. They make their way through the school, killing infected on the way till finally they make it to the school gym.

"There!" Aubrey exclaims and points to a window above the bleachers.

Bang… bang! A giant infected creature slams out of the supply closet.

"What… what the hell is that?" Aubrey looked at the giant creature in disgust and fear.

"That would be a bloater. Our luck just doesn't seem to be getting any better. Watch out for the blasts of spores." Kai takes out his shot gun and cocks it and starts shooting the hell out of the bloater. Aubrey tried to stay out its way and focused on the infected that would come in, shooting them with her gun.

"Damn this thing!" Kenny throws a nail bomb at the bloater and finally it goes down.

Kai wipes off sweat from his brow and goes over to the bleachers. "Come on Aubrey. Hurry up and climb up. You too Kenny." Aubrey complies, climbing out and jumping out of the window. They all quickly run into a house.

"Are…" Aubrey takes a big gulp of air. "Are we finally in the clear?"

"For the time being." Kai runs his hand through his hair and leans against the wall.

"This is all your fault." Kenny says quietly and almost calmly.

"Come again Kenny?"

Kenny loos straight at Kai with such vigor. "This is all your damn fault!" He runs at Kai and tries to punch him. Kai swift dodges the attack and pins Kenny against the wall.

"Calm down! We made it out! And in today's world, that counts for something."

"Guys…" Aubrey says looking at something a little ways in the house.

Kenny struggles against Kai. "If you didn't even take on whatever task it is for this fucking girl, neither one of us would be in this predicament!"

"Guys…" Aubrey says again a little louder.

"Shut the fuck up Kenny! I am not having anymore of your shit today! I'm in no mood for your petty bitch fit! Now I won't say it again. Calm the fuck down!"

"Guys!" She finally catches their attention.

"What Aubrey!?" Kai snaps.

"You should take a look at this." Kai sighs and when Kenny has calmed down, he lets him go and goes over to where she is.

"What is it?" She points up to the ceiling. Kai follows and see a dead body of some guy hanging on the wall.

Kenny snickers behind them and almost looks like he is on the brink of tears.

"What did you know this guy?" Kai asks.

"Yah… he was my partner… just leave him. Piece of shit would rather die than stay safe." Kenny goes off through the house.

"He looks like he was bitten." Aubrey inquires.

"Probably didn't want to turn into another infected." Kai follows after Kenny in the garage and sees him looking at the hood of a truck.

"Well, Kai… here's your fucking car. The bast are stole the battery."

"Kenny I'm …"

Kenny interrupts him. "Just get the fuck out. And if I ever see your sorry ass face in my town again, I'll fucking kill you. Consider all debts paid." He walks back into the house.

Both Aubrey and Kai stay silent.

Aubrey opens the garage then hops in the truck and they drive off.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed. Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**yay! Thank you for your review! And yes Kenny is gay in this story.**

* * *

Regan and Ray had made a great distance and was able to get as far as Pittsburg by not taking any days rest. They decided that an old military radio may be the best bet to try and reach out to Kai and Aubrey.

"So…" Ray broke their long silence finally. "At what age did you join the fireflies?"

"I didn't join. I was sort of raised into it. My parents were one of the few to rise up against the military. I'm just continuing their legacy I guess."

"You know, I never understood the whole point of theft battle between the fireflies and the soldiers."

Regan scoffed. "You're kidding right?" Ray shook his head in all seriousness. "Look you don't seem like a typical soldier but most of them hoard food and water saying they don't have any when they alone have enough to keep themselves fed for months. There is no such thing as order. That's why people rise up against the military."

"In the darkness, look for the light. Guess it makes sense but not everyone sees what you do as a good thing because sometimes the innocent are the ones that are killed during your "rising up" bombings. Seems like both sides have a lot in common but sometimes lose sight of what should be important. Protecting the people."

Regan shakes her head. "You sure are a weird one."

"Well most soldiers see the fireflies as people who are trying to bring back a political standard from the old world that no longer exists. But maybe with Aubrey, there is a possibility of going back to the way things were. I guess my faiths been restored"

"As it should be." She smiles over at him. "At the risk of sounding cheesy; we're going to save this planet and make earth livable again. Maybe not in my lifetime, but for future generations, I want this to be something in history books."

Ray shakes his head. "Nah. Not future generations. I want to see it all. Survive this whole thing, for me. Not some future generations. I kinda thought you would want to survive this ordeal, or are you just saying that you are prepared to die?"

"Well," she sighs, "to be honest, I don't think I will survive. My main concern is Aubrey's survival." She stops dead in her tracks concentrating then quickly backs up against a building crouching down and peeking around the corner. "You hear that?"

"Yep. Sounds like bandits. How much ammo you got?" Ray checks his own while waiting for her answer.

"I'm running low. Let's try and keep this quiet. Maybe we can sneak by without being spotted." She peeks over again and sees the radio tower not to far away. "If we can make it to that bridge, we should be golden."

"Then our main concern would be if Kai and Aubrey could even hear the broadcast." Ray keeps himself low and out of sight as he sneaks into the building and into the rooftops. "Let's try our luck with the rooftops…." Gasps "gets down." Ray ducks down pushing Regan's head down as well when shots are fired. When the shots seize, he peeks over to see that the bandits have a take and just shot down some random people. "Jesus, the got a hold of a tank…. With a dead body strapped to the hood. They seem like nice people."

-.-' "….yah. Well just in case, let just stay out of sight." She crawls across a plank to another rooftop and ducks down just in time for a big buff bandit to wall by. "Shit. Thought you said the rooftops would be clear" She whispers harshly at him.

Ray shrugs. "Guess they got smart. I'll take the one on the left. You take out the right… quietly." He sneaks around to get an angle on the guy and when both him and Regan are in place, he jumps out and strangles the bandit. He huffs. "Only an entire city to go."

"Confession time. I've actually never dealt with bandits before." Ray have her a shocked look.

"What? But you've ran all over the place?" She still shrugged and shook her head. "Well… I have when I was part of the scavenging unit. They are ruthless killers. They aren't even human anymore. They've been out here far too long. But I fear we all well become like the bandits and live by the motto of survival of the fittest. Come on. This way. They haven't spotted up yet." Ray makes his way down the side of the building and jumps into and open window. He turns around about to help Regan through when someone slams into him knocking him down.

Regan jumps into the room. "Hey get off off him!"

The stranger looks up at her in astonishment. "What…?"

Ray takes that opportunity and turns the table. Taking him down and starts walking on him.

Regan is looking at the corner of the room. "Ray stop!" Ray looks up and sees a little boy with light blue hair pointing a gun at them.

"Get away from him!" The little boy is shaking and had tears peeking out of the corners of his eyes.

Ray puts his hands up and slowly gets off the guy. "Hey take it easy there son."

The man puts up his hand to the boy. "Hiro, it's okay. They aren't one of them." He gets off and brushes himself off. "Sorry I thought you were a bandit. Ow…" He holds onto his now bruised side. "Damn man, you hit hard."

"Well I was trying to kill you." Ray still stands defensively in front of Regan.

"I'm Tyson and this is my brother Hiro. I think I caught your name. Ray?" Tyson then motions over to Regan.

"And I'm Regan."

"Well, it's nice to meet you guys."

"How'd you know we weren't one of them?" Questioned Regan.

"If you hadn't noticed, they don't take to kindly to women and children. You know, the whole survival if the fittest and all."

She looks over to Ray and smirks. "Guess I was your saving glory."

"So what brings you guys to this city?" Tyson asks.

"We are trying to make it to the radio tower."

"Really? We are too. Our group was bigger but someone had the bright idea of scavenging supplies in the city so we got separated. We are suppose to meet them at the radio tower tonight. What do you say? Are you in for traveling together?" Ray and Regan give each other a glance.

Ray nods his head. "Yah we're in."


	8. Chapter 8

**Welcome back and thank you for coming this far!**

* * *

Tyson leads them to his hide out that just happened to be close to their base camp. When asked if it was safe to be that close to them, he just simply shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I'm the only one with a key. Welcome to my office."

"So what exactly if your plan for getting by their base camp?" Regan pondered.

"I have been watching them for a while. At night, they turn into a skeleton crew. As long as we stay quiet, we should be able to sneak right past them." He sees the skeptical look on Ray's face. "Look, the most important thing for me is getting Hiro out of here. We are leaving tonight. With or without you."

Ray put up his hand in a gesture to calm down. "I wasn't going to say anything other than let's get rested up."

"… yah. Good idea."

* * *

When it's finally midnight, Regan goes over to Ray and gently shakes him awake. "Tyson said it's time to leave."

"Right." Ray wipes off the sleep from his face and gets up.

Tyson bends down to be Hiro's level. "Now I want you to listen to my every word. You are to stick to new like glue. Repeat it."

"Yes I get it." Hiro rolls his eyes.

"I said repeat it." He gives him a warning tone.

"Stick to you like glue." He sighs but gives his brother a small smile when he pats him on the head.

"You two ready for this?" They both nod. Tyson takes in a deep breath and when he lets it out he quietly opens the door that leads into the base camp. "I'll follow your lead Ray."

Ray nods. "Right." He goes up behind some debree and sees two bandits talking to one another on with their backs facing them. "You go right." Tyson nods in understanding. They both sneak their way up to the bandits, strangling the two and moving their bodies out of sight.

They keep low and head outside. "Dammit. There are two snipers posted up on their barricade. Wouldn't happen to have a bow and arrow in your packs?"

Regan and Ray both shake their head.

"Damn." Tyson whispers a little too loudly.

"We may have to just Gung hoe this operation." Ray sighed in fustration.

"Wait here." Before Ray could protests Regan crouches off getting closer to the barricade. She climbs up on one side and sneaks up behind one of the snipers and stabs him in the throat. She then does the same to the other sniper. She signals to the others to come to where she was.

"You've got yourself quite the woman there, Ray." Tyson smirks and urges his brother to move forward.

"She isn't my woman." He sighs and makes his way to where she is located. "That was stupidly dangerous." He scolds.

"But it worked, didn't it." She crossed her arms, more than ready to argue with him.

He sighed. "Yah I guess it did. But seriously, don't be so reckless next time."

"Right, I'll remember that the next time I save your ass."

Tyson jumps down from the sniper areas and tries to open the barricade doors. "Ray, I need your help opening this."

"On it. Regan, watch our backs." Ray jumps down and starts slamming against the door. "Damn what the hell?"

Regan hears the sound of a very loud engine. "Uh guys… you may want to hurry up and get those doors open."

Just then a tank rams through a wall and starts gunning at them. "Shit!" Tyson and Ray slam harder against the door till finally it opens. "Come on hurry up!"

Regan runs to the barricade door but a hand holds her back before she can enter. She struggles against it, kicking and flailing hut it's too strong. "Ray!"

Ray stops and looks back, seeing a bandit grabbing onto Regan. "Fucker! No you don't!" He runs back and pulse the guy off of her. He slams the bandits head so hard against the ground, you could hear the Crack over the engine of the tank. "You okay?"

"Worry about that later." Ducks for cover when the tank shoots. "Come on!" The two of them catch up to Tyson and Hiro.

" We have a problem guys. The bridge is out." Tyson looks to Ray with an apologetic look.

"Let's jump." Ray suggest.

"Are you crazy? The fall will kill us!" Hiro looked over the edge of the bridge. The tank was right behind them, trying to push through the cars to get to them.

"We don't have another choice. Don't worry Hiro. We will be fine." Tyson pats his brother on his head.

"Ray, are you sure about this?" He nods his head and takes her hand.

"We will jump together." They both are a deep breath and jump into the rushing river water. The temperature alone was enough to make any person gasp.

Ray kept bobbing to the top trying to think keep himself and Regan above water. No matter how rough the current was, he never lost his grip on her and made sure that he was the one to slam into rocks.

Finally they find their way to shore. Ray is gasping for air while trying to empty them of water. "Is…" coughs a couple times, "is everyone okay and accounted for?"

Tyson and Hiro are both coughing up water. "Yah. Still here."

Regan stands up, looking around at her surroundings. "Now how the hell are we gonna get to the radio tower?"

"Hiro and I will look around for a way. Just hang tight."

Ray leans up and looks around. "We really got ourselves into some shit didn't we."

"Yah. Thanks for your help back there."

"I'm know you would do the same thing. I would consider us even now. You know, for the whole sniper thing." He smirks at her.

"Heh. Funny."

"Hey I think I found us a way in!" Hiro comes running to them. "This way."

Ray gets up and jogs after him. "Don't tell me it's another sewage system."

"Actually I think it's a water filtration system." Tyson answers.

"Thank goodness because I am really tired of walking through shit."

"Aw but I think you look sexy covered n human excrement." Ray give Regan a look that just makes her crack up. "I'm sorry I couldn't help it."

"Just shut up and get in." He holds open the grate for everyone to climb in and it slams behind him with a loud thud.

"I hope their aren't any clickers around because that was loud." Regan stated.

"Thank you captain obvious. And that grate is heavy. I'd like to see you try and hold that thing for long." He huffs at her. "And don't go jinxing us with clickers."

* * *

 **So let me just apologize now. I know that there are a lot of grammatical errors but I am doing this from a phone. Quickly might I add. I do plan on going back through each chapter once I'm finished and editing out those darned errors. But for now, bear with me! I'll keep posting fast but I gotta ignore those errors.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ah! Thank you! I totally forgot to mention that for the sake of making Tyson a more promenant character, I made him the older brother.**

* * *

Hiro messes with some old food cans. "You think someone used to live here?"

"I wouldn't put it past you. I'm sure there was at one time. But they are long gone." Tyson searches through some of the rubble for some supplies.

They come to a widened opening of the pipe, entering the building part of the water filtration company. Ray opens the door and a crate of bottles fall from the ceiling.

"What is that?" Asks Hiro.

"That is a sound trap to let you know someone is coming. But those occupants are long gone. At least not living." Ray tenses up when he hears the screech of an infected. "Shit! Get ready!" They all take aim as the first wave of infected comes at them.

Hiro shots at an infected but it doesn't go down and it ends up pinning him down. It takes everything just to hold him off. "Tyson!"

Tyson stops shooting at the infected and goes over to his brother, kicking the infected off of him and using a lead pipe so smash in the infected's skull. "Are you okay?" Tyson quickly turns back and starts shooting at the infected.

"Y…yah I'm fine." After the last one is stabbed with a shiv by Ray, they all assess one another.

"Were you bit any where?" Tyson starts checking Hiro until he pushes him away.

"No. I said I was fine!" He snaps. Tyson is taken aback by his brothers outburst.

Ray wanting to break the tension, speaks up. "We should go. We were just loud as hell and I don't feel like finding more." They all follow after him.

"You know I think that this is going to lead right to the radio station." Tyson said.

"Oh yah? What makes you think that?" Ray raised his eyebrow, curious of his answer.

"Because of how shitty our luck has been so far. We are bound to have some good luck right?" Ray starts cracking up.

"If only this world worked like that. I think we are all due some good luck." Ray stops and listening.

"What is it…" Ray shushes him.

"Infected. And a whole hell lot of them. We need to run." They all burst out running, making their way to the door that leads to outside.

Regan shoves against it. "It's stuck!" Ray and Tyson try but it won't budge.

Regan looks around trying to think of something fast, then spots the window above the door. "Boost me up! I'll see if I can open it from the outside." Ray hurries and boosts her up.

"Hiro, you too. I'm not having you in here with them." Hiro complies to Tyson's orders and gets hosted through the window.

"Here they come, Tyson." Ray shoots one after another, until finally the door is opened and both Tyson and Ray squeeze through the opening. They push back the vending machine back against the door that was preventing them from opening the door.

Regan snickers while looking at something.

"I don't find what we just went through funny." Ray gives her a condescending look. Regan points to something on the wall.

"Do not enter. Infected inside." Hiro reads.

Regan scoffs. "Thanks for the warning on the other side assholes."

"Look. The lighthouse is just a mere mile away." Tyson almost collapses from sheer joy of seeing the radio tower.

"Guess you were right about finally getting our dues of good luck." Ray laughs.

"Let's just get the fuck out of here." They all start jogging to the radio tower.

* * *

Ray and Tyson are sitting down eating some canned goods, cracking up and having a good ol' time.

"Man, how would you even know what it's like to ride a motorcycle?" Ray takes a bite of his beans.

Tyson's eyes glaze over as his imagination takes over. "Because I've seen it in my dreams. Vroom Vroom vrooom." He mocks riding a motorcycle and cracks up laughing.

Regan shakes her head and snickers. "I would say that the two of you have officially bonded."

Tyson looks over to his brother who is looking a bit green around the gills. "Hey, why don't you get some rest. It's been a tough couple of days." Hiro nods his head and goes into another room to sleep. Tyson watches him as he closes the door. "It's gotta be tough on a kid to grow up in this world."

Ray pats his back. "Your brother is one tough kid. You are doing a great job of raising him."

Tyson looks off into some distant place with a sad look in his eyes. "I'm trying. I want him to make it through these odds." He sighs. "I don't think anyone from my group is coming." They get quiet.

"Why… why don't you travel with us? We are going to the fireflies head quarters so come with us." Regan nudges Ray and gives him a warning look, clearly not liking his sudden invitation.

"I may take you up on that. But for now, I think I'm gonna hit the sack." He stands up and stretches out as he yawns. "Night you two."

Regan waits till they are alone before she turns to Ray. "Are you crazy? What if they are trying to kill the fireflies?"

Ray shakes his head. "I highly doubt that. Most people who are toeing around kids don't go on suicidal kamikaze missions."

"Well I don't trust him." She glares at Tyson's door.

"You don't trust anyone. Traveling in numbers is sometimes better. He is just wanting a safe place for his brother to grow up."

She scoffs at him. "You don't understand because you aren't one of us."

Ray is taken aback. "Damn, Regan. Do I have to be one of the fireflies? I left my damn military post for you and that girl. I left behind everything the I know. What's isn't gonna take for you to trust me?"

She shakes her head. "Whatever. I'm not gonna have this argument. You do whatever you want but my main concern is Aubrey and I will do whatever it takes to protect her."

Ray sighs. "So this is why you're on edge. Your worried about them." He waited for her reply but she stayed silent. "I'm sure she is fine. Kai seems like one scary ass dude. He will protect her." He paused to watch her reaction. "Why don't you get some rest. I'll take first watch and wake you up if anything happens."

She sighs and gets up, making her way to a couch. "Goodnight Ray. Wake me up for anything."


	10. Chapter 10

**Can't believe I have already done 10 chaptees. I was originally planning on this story only being 10 chapters, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Lol. Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest.**

* * *

Regan wakes up to the smell of something wonderful smelling and looks over to see Tyson making fried peaches. "That smells heavenly."

Tyson laughed. I'm pretty sure now a days anything cooked smells heavenly." He smiles at Ray when he enters the room.

"Well you seem chipper this morning." He sat down, eager to try these fried peaches.

"I am. For once, things seem to be going well for us. And I think that I'll take you up on that offer of joining you. If you'll still have us , that is." He mainly looks over to Regan, knowing she has her doubts about them. "Besides, I know I can trust you guys. You saved my brothers life which speaks wonders in this world."

Regan sighs. "Yah. You're right. I would be glad to have the two of you travel with us." Tyson's face lit up bright.

"Would you mind getting Hiro up? He will be glad to hear this news. And I think he is a bit infatuated with you." They both laugh.

Regan goes over and opens the door. "Hey Hiro, breakfast is ready is you want to eat. Oh, you're already up." She sees Hiro standing their not really moving much and murmuring to himself. "Are you okay?" He twitches as she steps closer. "Hiro?" She reaches towards him. At that same time he turns around with clusters growing on his face, eyed glazed, and screams as he launches at her. Regan stumbles back "Ray!" She tries to keep him from biting her but she trips and falls through the door into the view of Tyson and Ray.

"Oh shit! He's infected!" Ray runs over and rummaged through his bag to grab his gun. As he pulls it out, a shot is fired close to his hand. "The hell are you doing?"

Tyson has the gun pointed at him. "No, what the hell are you doing? That's my brother!" He has tears running down his face.

Ray doesn't have much time to try and figure out how to get out of this. "Screw it." He lifts up his gun about to shoot Hiro, when a bullet flies through the infected brothers head.

Tyson's gun chatters to the ground followed by him collapsing in his knees.

Ray goes over to Regan and pulls her out from underneath Hiro's dead body. "Are you okay?" She nods scared and clutches onto Ray.

"This is your fault." Tyson says softly. "This is all your fault." He picks up his gun and points it first and Regan then at Ray.

Ray stands in front of Regan. "Hey, now let's talk about this. This is no one's fault."

Tyson stuggles internally with himself. "He was supposed to make it. It's your fault. It's your fault." He turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger.

"Oh my god." Regan gasps.

* * *

Kai and Aubrey were driving a few hours in silence, when Aubrey, who just can't help herself, broke the silence. "So I kind of stole something from Kenny's. I thought that you might like it and since radio no longer exists…" pulls out a cassette tape. "I thought maybe we could listen to this." Waves it in front of him. "Does it make you all nostalgic?"

"Um I'll have you know that those were before my time. And how old do you think I am?" Kai looks over at her.

She shrugs. "I don't know. I was only 5 when it all went down."

"Yah well I was only 10. We're born in the same generation. Put the damn thing in." She laughs at how angry he got for calling him old and sticks it in and presses play. What cam out was good ol' classical music.

"Um… I'm sure that this was popular at one time."

"Yah like the 1800s. Kenny is crazy about his music." He shakes his head.

"So where are we going?"

"Jackson, Wyoming. I know someone out there who used to work for the fireflies. He could tell us exactly where we need to go. Maybe stretch our legs a bit too." He adjusts himself, trying to get comfortable for the long car ride.

"How do you know the people out there will help us?"

"There's a guy I used to know a few years back. He's trustworthy. I know it's hard to believe but I would actually trust him with my life if it came down to it."

She yawns. "Well I trust you and your judgement. Since this is going to be a long drive, I'm gonna catch some 'z's. Wake me up if you need anything." She rests her head on the door frame.

"Sleep well. I'll wake you up when we get gas." She was out before he could say that.


	11. Chapter 11

**Yay! You've made it this far! I hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

Aubrey adjusted in the midst of her sleep and ended up leaning against Kai. He jumped, a little drowsy himself, unsure of what to do. Should he push her off? Or just leave her and let her sleep?

He pushed her hair out of her face. The two of them had been through a lot together. She has proven herself many times to him that she is a lot stronger than he initially thought.

When he first found out that he was smuggling a woman across the country, the first thing he thought was, what the hell did this person do, and what makes her so special? But he learned long ago not to question what he was hired to smuggle. At least out loud.

She certainly was different from the typical smuggling jobs he took on. What amazed him more than anything was how he genuinely wants to protect her. With other jobs, he was always heartless and could care less if people died along the way, as long as he survived. That 'need' to protect her, scared him. It was a sign of weakness and Kenny was right. He would die because of it.

He took one last look at her sleeping face before waking her up. "Hey, we're almost to the gas station. If we're lucky there still might be some fuel in the underground pumps."

Her eyes flutter open. It takes a moment for her to realize that she is leaning on Kai and she jumps up. "Oh sorry. I hope I didn't get an slobber on you." He snickers and shook his head. She stretches her arms out as much as she can in the truck and yawns. "Why not get gas from all these abandoned cars? You'd be amazed at how much gas is still left in them."

"True." He raised his brow. "Guess I underestimates you. You know more than I thought you would."

She huffed at his partially rude comment. "I've survived this long without you haven't I? I have been taking care of myself my entire life. Especially since I was left an orphan just like many others when the outbreak happened." She looks out the window to view the city. "Some would say that they were the lucky ones… wha about you?" She looks back over at him. "How did Kai survive this long and be this good in the open wide infected, bandit covered world?"

Kai got real quite. More quiet than usual. Aubrey watched as his eyes glazed over with memories of his past. She sighed. "It's okay, Kai. You don't have to tell me."

His grip tightened on the steering wheel. "I had a wife… with a kid on the way. They were my reason to survive…"

Since they weren't here with him, she guessed that the same thing happened to them as what happens to everyone's family now. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"I am too…" Kai slammed hard on the breaks. Aubrey barely had enough time brace herself.

"Guess the whole not trying to get me killed is out the window." She watches as he leaves the car not saying anything. She sighs. "I shouldn't have said anything." She gets out of the car and stretches her legs. "Oh my god!" She squeels.

Kai ran over to her side of the truck with his gun ready to shoot anything. "What?"

She laughs at him. "It feels good to stand. Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you." He glares at her and goes to the gas pump to siphon out the fuel. She goes into the gas station to see if there is any supplies or food that they can use. She ends up stopping at an old magazine shelf, looking at the models. "Jeez, I thought there was plenty of food back then. They all look like skin and bone. Huh?" She spots something in the corner of her eye and has her gun trained on it, thinking it's infected.

What comes out of the shadows is a man holding his gut that is covered in blood. He holds out his hand to her. "H…help me… please. I've been shot…" the man grunts in pain.

"K….Kai…" Aubrey slowly backs up till she is outside. The guy slowly follows her, begging for help. Kai runs over and stands in front of her aiming his gun at the wounded man.

"Don't move! Or I won't hesitate to blow your fucking head off!" He looks at the guy who is seriously pleading with them at this point.

"Are we gonna help him?"

"He ain't hurt. Get in the truck…" He says quietly.

"What?"

He snaps at her. "I said get in the truck! Now!"

Aubrey jumps at his order but runs over and jumps in the truck.

"Shouldn't have done that." The bandit shakes his head and before he can pull out his gun, Kai blows his head off.

"Shit." Kai sees some other bandits coming out of the wood works and makes a run for the truck. He grunts when he feels a sharp pain go through his chest.

"Kai!" Aubrey yells. He jumps in the truck and screeches off at full speed. "Kai, your bleeding. Really bad." She takes off her sweater to try and help stop the bleeding.

"I'll be fine, let's just get the hell out of here." His eyes start to get woozy. "God dammit." Everything goes black.

Aubrey sees him nod off. "Kai?" Tears are running down her face as she tries to keep him awake. "Kai! Look out!" His head hits the steering wheel and Aubrey covers her face as they slam straight into a cement wall.

* * *

"Uuugh." Aubrey grunts. Her whole body ached. She put her hand on her head, feeling the slick yet sticking feeling of blood…."blood…" She looks at her head and everything that happened suddenly rushes back. "Kai!" She looks over at him through the smoke of the engine pouring in from the broken windows. She reaches over to him but is stuck by the locked seat belt. "Dammit… it's stuck." She pulls out her knife and cuts it off. The first thing she does is check for a pulse and almost bursts out crying when there is one. It's faint but Kai still has a pulse.

Aubrey climbs out of the car window since her door is jammed and runs over to his side to help him out. She tries to be as gentle as she can with him being wounded but, damn he's heavy. She manages to get him on her back while she carries his pack on her front. She would just have to come back for hers pack later.

He grunts from the pain. "Hang in there Kai. We will make it out of this." She hears voices approaching the truck. "Shit." She starts dragging him as fast as she can away from the bandits.

After walking non stop, finally reached the outskirts of the town they stopped in. Wherever that was. "Okay Kai. I'm gonna put you down. But I'll be right back. I'm just checking for infected." She waits for his labored breathing to calm down before she leaves him to check the house.

Once it's cleared she drags him into the house and hoists him up onto the couch. "Okay. Now to work on that wound." She rummages through his pack and pulls out the medical kit he had. She takes a deep breath before removing her blood drenched sweater and lifting up his shirt. Luckily for her the bullet did not need to be fished out since it went right through him. She went to work with cleaning the wound, stitching it up and applying disinfectant.

"Just one final touch Kai, and then you will get to feeling better." She wipes off the sweat the was accumulating on his forehead. She filled the syringe from his medical kit with antibiotic and stuck it in next to his wound on his chest then wrapped his chest up with clean bandages. "There."

She sighs in relief and looks down at her blood covered hands, grabbing a bottle of water to try and get some of it off. She leaned back on the couch next to Kai, listening carefully to the sound and rhythm of his breathing. "It's funny. Now the tables have turned and I'm saving your ass." She starts playing with pieces of hair as she lays her head down next to him, holding his hand with the other. "I can tell that you are glaring at me, telling me that I'm dumb. Out of everyone I have gotten to know, you are definitely the meanest."

The tears at this point won't stop running and her breath hitches. She squeezes his hand. "Please… please don't leave me. Not you… Not you too." She cries herself to sleep.

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 **See! I made it longer! To make up for the super short last chapter.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I hope you enjoy. Please review :)**

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 _"Hey Aubrey?" A young girl with dirty blond hair and emerald greens eyes who looks similar to Aubrey, is looking up at the sky._

 _"Hmm?" Aubrey glances over at the girl, then back up at the sky._

 _"What is it that you are most afraid of?" She looks over at Aubrey._

 _"Uh… let's see… tarantulas. Those things creep me out especially how they crawl around. Actually I think it's all bugs."_

 _"No no. What is your biggest fear?" She leans up on her hands and looks down and Aubrey._

 _Aubrey keeps staring up at the clouds. "I guess the same things that other people are afraid of. Infected, starving to death, bandits… but most of all…" She sighs. "I'm scared of being alone."_

 _"It's sad how everyone keeps leaving you." She girls face starts to become distorted and growing clusters from infection. "Maybe there is something wrong wrong with you. Or maybe you are just meant to live and die alone." The girl launches at Aubrey and bites her, ripping through her neck._

* * *

Aubrey jolts up in a cold sweat, breathing heavy. She sighs, relieved that it was just a dream. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and looks at Kai. "How are you feeling today?" His lips were blue but he was still breathing. She looked around the house and found a blanket, bringing it down and covering him up to keep him warm. "Please get better soon, Kai."

Aubrey hears faint voices coming from outside. "She's gotta be somewhere in this town."

She curses. "Shit. They tracked me." She looks back over to Kai. "I gotta lead them away from here." She grabs one of his guns from his pack and looks back at Kai one last time before leaving. "I'll be back once I lead them away."

Aubrey stays low as she sneaks through the town, stabbing a few of the bandits on the way. "Shit shit shit. There are so many of them."

A bandit starts coming close to her and notices the dead body of a bandit she stabbed and killed. "Oh shit. You fuckers! Spread out! She's and round here somewhere."

Aubrey bursts out and starts shooting at the bandit running as fast as she can. The bandits start shooting the areas around her but never actually shoot her. She keeps running through the cold snow to try and lead the bandits away from Kai. But how was she ever gonna be able to make it back to him.

She sneaks through a couple buildings back in the city to try and lose the bandits. She huffs a sigh of relief when she doesn't hear any of them following her. "Finally." As she steps outside again a hand grabs her and knocks her out before she could even struggle.

* * *

Aubrey grunts from the pain throbbing on her head where she was hit. She gets up on her knees to assess where she is at. She's locked in a jail cell. The sound of a knife cutting through meat keeps resounding in the room. Once her eyes focus more, she sees that it's a bandit… butchering a dead human. The bandit looks over at her then leaves the room.

She looks at the meat cutting table in horror. "Holy shit." She gets up and starts slamming against the cell door, trying to bust it open.

"That won't work, I'm afraid." The voice came from where the bandit left. A man with unnaturally red hair and piercing aqua blue eyes came into view. "Here I brought you some food." He slides the tray under the cell door to her. He sees her looking at the dead human then back at her food. "It's deer."

"With some human helping on the side?" She glares at him.

"No," He shakes his head. "Just deer. Scouts honor." She contemplates for a second then starts eating since she hasn't eaten in who knows how long.

"Why are you here? Fattening me up before you chop me up into tiny pieces?" She throws back whatever food she didn't finish back at him.

"My names Tala. I am here to help you. I saved you, you know."

She stands up going over to the cell door. "Shooting at me is helping me?"

"Mistakes were made but ultimately you weren't hurt. It was impossible to bring you here without a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing to really hurt you. I saved you from him. That man was dangerous." He looks at her tenderly.

She's taken aback and tries to hide her disgust. "What do you want from me? Where's Kai?"

"He didn't make it. I have been watching you for a while now. I think I caught your name. Aubrey, was it? I spotted you a few cities back. I couldn't help it but…" He puts his hand tenderly on hers, "I have taken a special liking to you. My friends think it's a bad idea but I know that I can convince them to change their minds. But it need you to cooperate with me so that the rest of them can see how special you are too."

"Oh…I see." She puts her other hand on top of his and starts tenderly rubbing it and gives him a small smile. "Well you should tell them…" She grabs his fingers and twists his hand so hard you can hear the cracking sounds as the break. "That Aubrey is the one who broke your fucking fingers!" She takes the opportunity of his writhing in agony,to reach for his keys, but it doesn't work and he grabs ahold of her hair and starts slamming her against the bars of the cell.

"You fucking bitch!" He slams her down and backs up away from the cell. "What was it you said again? Tiny pieces?" Tala runs out of the room.

"Fuckers." Aubrey spits out some blood onto the floor.

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 **hope you enjoyed! Please leave feedback!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Holy chit! 4 chapters posted in one day? Woot I'm on a roll!**

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Kai kept mumbling in his coma like state. He swore he could hear that Aubrey was leaving. "No…no don't…" He said almost too quietly to be heard.

He heard a door shut and bolted up, breathing heavily."Ow… fuck." He puts his hand over his gun shot wound on his chest and sees that it's all stitched up. "Aubrey…" He looks around for her but doesn't see her anywhere in sight. He sees his clothes neatly folded next to his pack and gets dressed, ignoring the pain it causes him. "Where the hell is she?" He packs up his bags and head back to the city, thinking that he might be able to track her from where the crash sight was.

As he approaches the truck, he can hear some bandits talking. "Seems the boss is love struck."

"Yah and it's gonna get him killed. Should just fry her up and eat her."

Kai grunts. "Dammit Aubrey. You go and get yourself caught." He runs up behind those two bandits and knocks their heads together, knocking them out. He grabs her pack out of the truck and heads to a more secure area, dragging the two bandits with him.

* * *

Kai rummaged through the bandits stuff and found some cigarettes. "Damn. Haven't seen these in years." He lights one up while he waits for his captives to wake up. One is tied to a chair in the middle of the room while the other one is restrained on the wall.

He sees that the one on the wall is starting to stir. "Huh… what the fuck?" The bandit looks around and sees Kai approaching him. "What the hell do you want?"

Kai gets up and twirls an iron rod around his fingers. He stands in front of him and takes a breath taking drag of his cigarette. When he blows out the smoke, with all his might he drives the iron rod through the bandits legs. "I'm gonna need you to stay put." The bandit screams from the immense pain, then grits his teeth. The bandit in the chair grunts awake from the scream.

Kai pulls up a chair and sits in front of the bandit in the chair. "Good morning sunshine." He blows his cigarette smoke into the bandits face. "Now this is how things are gonna play out." He takes out a map. "You're gonna mark on this map here the location of the girl you took."

"Fuck you! Why should I tell you any…AAAH!" The bandit screams from a knife getting stabbed in the knee.

"You've got about 5 seconds to tell me or I'm gonna pop off your knee cap. 1… 2… 3…4…"

"OKAY! Okay I'll tell you." He hisses when the knife is pulled out.

"Good." He sticks a marker into the mouth of the bandit and put the map in front of him. "Now I'm also gonna check with your buddy over there and if I find out you're lying and he points to a different location, I'll kill you." The bandits is sweating profusely and marks on the map Aubrey's location.

He spits the marker out on the floor. "I'm not lying."

"I sure hope not." He pulls out his gun and shoots the bandit in the chair.

The one on the wall, gasped. As Kai approaches him with the man, he spits at him. "I'm not telling you shit about where she is."

"Oh I believe him." Kai takes his aim and shoots him. He takes the last drag of his cigarette and flicks it on the dead body of the bandit. He grabs his shot gun and cocks it. "Hang in there, Aubrey. I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you, even if it means killing every last fucker and burning this city down."

* * *

Very early in the morning, Aubrey gets woken up by being dragged out of the cell and onto the cold steel slab that once had another dead body on it. She struggling against the bandit and Tala. In the midst of her struggle she is able to bite Tala hard enough in the arm it almost takes a chunk of skin. He hisses from the pain then punches her. "Get the fuck away from me! What the hell are you doing?"

Tala gives her a sinister look. "Since you don't want to be one of us and be with me, we are gonna make use of your body by eating you." He holds her down while the other bandit raises the clever above his head about to swing down.

"Wait… wait! I'M INFECTED!" The bandit stops mid swing.

"What?" He looks to his boss.

"Don't listen to her. She would have turned by now."

She shakes her head. "Check my arm! I'm not lying!" With a skeptical look, Tala pulls up her sleeve.

"What the hell?" The bandit starts to back up. Even Tala's grip begins to loosen. She takes that opportunity to roll off the table and grab the knife that was stuck to the table, slicing at Tala's face and stabbing the other bandit in the throat. Tala pulls out his gun and starts shooting at her.

Aubrey quickly ducks down and runs out of the room. "Fucking hell!" She hears Tala yell. She bolts out of the building and into the bandit camp, trying to escape the clutches of the bandits but at every turn the start shooting near her feet.

"Shit! They are leading me somewhere. Kai, what do I do?" She shuts her eyes so hard, trying to will Kai to appear in front of her. An explosion sounds in the distance and she can see a couple buildings have gone up in flames.

"Come on out and play Miss Aubrey!" She freezes up at the sound of Tala.

She manages to sneak into an old restaurant building. Before she can get to the door that leads outside, Tala throughs a bottle of alcohol and fire at the door. Aubrey quickly backs away from the flames and coughs from the smoke. She crouches down out of sight.

"I didn't realize you had this much fire in you! This is the most fun I've had in a long time. I can't wait till I get my hands on you. I'm gonna have even more fun with you before I kill you." He checks carefully behind a couple corners searching for her. "Come on, don't be shy. I can be quite gentle…" He gets real quiet, when he spots her hiding spot. "Gottcha."

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 **Dun dun duuuun! Cliff hanger!**


	14. Chapter 14

**So this chapter makes me question whether I should change the rating to M. Let me know what you think because I think it's border line.**

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Tala grabs the back of Aubrey's hair and slams her down hard enough to knock the air out of her. Her knife slides out of her hand underneath a nearby table. She rolls over and starts crawling towards the knife.

Tala laughs at her struggle. "Just give up already." He kicks her hard in the stomach.

"Oof." She curls up from the pain, but keeps reaching for her knife.

"I'm so glad I found you. You truly are special." Tala gets on top of her, turning her on her back so she is facing him. He restrains her hands, and links the side of her ear. "The less you resist the more fun this will be for you." He whispers in her ear.

"No!" She struggles as hard as she can, kicking her legs, which was a useless effort. "Stop this!" She whines trying her best to fight him.

He lets go of her hands so that he can undo his belt buckle and zipper. She starts scratching at him, which irritates him so he holds a knife against her neck to the point of drawing blood. "You need to stop resisting. There is no one out there who is going to help you." He continues with ripping her clothes and feeling her up.

* * *

Kai killed bandit after bandit. Setting fire to each and every building of this fucking bandit camp. He came bursting through the door of the restaurant ignoring the fire. The sight he saw before him, sent him into blind rage. He charges at Tala, picking him clear up off the ground and slams him down, hard enough to crack a skull. All the while, Tala is laughing.

Aubrey slowly reaches for the knife, unable to see anything but Tala on top of her. Unable to feel anything but his hands roam her half naked body. She grips the knife and screams as she charges at Tala. Kai barely had enough time to get out of the way in time for her to slam the knife into his face. She keeps stabbing and stabbing, stabbing stabbing stabbing stabbing stabbing stabbing stabbing stabbing…etc.

Kai watches her as she keeps stabbing the unrecognizable being. "Aubrey stop." She doesn't hear him and keeps stabbing down. "Aubrey!" He grabs ahold of her arm and she swings her knife at him, catching his face. "Aubrey, it's me, Kai!"

She drops the knife, finally seeing who it is, saying her name and starts crying, harder than ever. He grabs her into a hug. "He… he…"

"Ssshh. It's okay now. He's gone. I'm here. It's okay." He wraps his jacket around her and carries her out of the burning restaurant and out of the burnt bandit compound.

* * *

Aubrey and Kai were able to salvage parts of the wrecked truck and out them into a military truck that the bandits once had. They had made it into the date of Wyoming but still had a long way since to go. Ever since the incident, Aubrey handy said a word. She just always stared off into some distant land.

"Would you look at that view?" He waits for her to aay something. "Wyoming really has a lot of beautiful scenery." She doesn't answer and just keeps staring. "Aubrey?"

"Hm?" She finally looks over at him.

"Did you hear what I said?" He looks at her with concern.

"Oh… yah." She looks back at the window.

"… then what did I say?" She doesn't answer again, so he stops the car.

"Why are we stopping?"

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

She shakes her head. "What is there to talk about?"

He sighs. "I'm gonna stretch my legs." When he doesn't receive an answer he gets out of the truck. He scratches his head, unsure of what to say. He never came across this problem before. Only because he was used to her always talking to him with her endless chit chat. He keeps looking in at the passenger side but she always makes the same blank face.

Tired of it he opens her side of the truck. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" She asks curiously.

He jumps over the side railing. "When we get there, I'll tell you" He reaches out his hand to her.

She stares at him, almost unsure of what he has planned. Eventually she hops out of the truck and takes his hand. He leads her to a zoo that has long been cast into the ruins of the dystopian world. Her eyes widen at the cryptic yet beautiful site. "Whoa…" She breaths.

She notices something out of the corner of her eye. "No way!" She runs off ahead of Kai making her way through a rotting building.

"Aubrey? Hey wait up." He runs after her.

When he finally catches up to her he sees what she in aw about. A giraffe is at the same level as them, eating the shrubbery that has grown off of the building. Kai reaches out his hand and starts petting it.

"Don't scare it."

"I wont, I won't. Come here." He motions his head towards the giraffe. She slowly walks closer. "Easy now." She reaches out her hand slowly until she comes in contact with the rough fur of the wild animal. He watches as she smiles. Something she hadn't done in a long time.

The giraffe starts walking off. "Hey come back here. Come on. Let's see where it goes." She starts making her way to the roof to watch the giraffe meet up back with the rest of its kind. Kai stands next to her watching them with her.

"So, is this everything you were hoping for?"

She looks off with sadness in her eyes. "It's got its ups and downs…" She looks over at him. "But you can't deny the view though." They both give a light laugh.

Kai puts his hand on her head like a kid and looks away from her. "I want you to know that… you can talk to me about anything."

She takes his hand, intertwines it with hers and holds it against her cheek. "I know. What happened was scary. But things worked out. So let's not dwell on it."

He nods his head. "We…" He takes his hand away. "We should head back to the truck." He scratches his head and avoids looking at her.

They make it back to the truck and start driving off when they start to hear a static come through the radio. "That… I swear that static sounds like Regan." Aubrey looks over to Kai who turns up the radio and tries to adjust the station to get a clearer channel.

Kai sighs when he can't get anything. "It's probably nothing."

The odd voice comes back, severely hazy. "This….gan…. Fire…s." They both stare at the radio in shock. Kai keeps turning the radio till he gets a clearer. "I repeat, this is Regan of the fireflies. If you know who I am, and are able to, radio back."

"Holy shit…" Aubrey looks at the radio, relieved that her friend is alive.

Kai quickly grabs the receiver to radio back. "Regan, this is Kai."

Back at the radio tower, Regan jumps in her seat. "Oh my god Kai! I'm so glad to hear your voice. And Aubrey?"

"She's fine." Kai hands the receiver to Aubrey.

"Regan I'm glad to hear that you are okay. Where are you?"

Regan almost faints from relief. "Ray and I are in Philadelphia. As much as I want to catch up, I need to talk to Kai about where we should meet."

Kai takes back the receiver. "Go to Jackson, Wyoming. There is a community there. I can't give you more because we run the risk of others hearing about it."

"I understand. Hey Kain I know you have done a great job so far, but please continue to keep her safe." She waits for his reply before she leaves to go pack up her stuff.

"Duh." He says and turns off the radio.

"I can't believe they are alive. Like seriously, what are the odds." Aubrey seems to all but forgotten the whole ordeal with Tala, and Kai was glad to see her spirits finally up.

But something kept eating him up inside. Something that he hadn't felt for a long time. He clutches the necklaces with his old wedding band that he kept hidden in his pack.

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 **Please review.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Never thought I would still be writing this story past chapter 15 but I guess wherever the story leads me, I'll follow. Please leave a review.**

* * *

Regan and Ray haul ass to Wyoming to meet up with Kai and Aubrey.

Meanwhile, Kai and Aubrey are forced to abandoned their truck and just trek the rest of the way on foot.

Aubrey is whistling a made up tune. With her spirits back, Kai doesn't say anything about her being annoying. He made an ultimatum for himself. One that he would reveal when the time was right. For now, he kept a watchful and vigilant eye on Aubrey.

"Hey so tell me more about this friend of yours? How do you know him?" Aubrey started walking backwards to look at him.

"Well we go way back. He's like a brother to me. We knew each other before the outbreak. And we stuck together for a while. Till he decided to run off and join the fireflies."

"Is he still a firefly?"

Kai shakes his head. "No, he left that a long time ago. After so much of Regan promising hope and never seeing anything, it can wear on a person. So he left."

"Well… if you think about it, she did keep her word."

He snickers. "Yah guess you're right."

They walk for a few miles till they come to a hydroelectric plant. Aubrey huffs when she reaches the barricade. "Well the only camp I'm seeing, is a camp out ants." She sighs. "I don't mean to be a downer but are you sure they are around?"

"I sure hope so." He looks around to try and spot the best path. "Let's try cutting through this plant. Seems like the shortest way to get through." Kai goes over to the doors and struggles to open it. "Damn. It's not budging." He tries again when a woman up top the barricade points a fun at them.

"Back away from the door!" Aubrey points her gun at her. "Tell the girl to lower her gun." Kai looks over to Aubrey and nods.

"We don't want any trouble. We are just looking for someone."

A man's voice could be heard from the other side of the door. "It's okay. Lower your weapons."

The woman looks baffled. "What? Do you know them?"

The man opens the door. "I know him." He walks over to Kai and gives him a hug. "Is good to see you brother."

"Bryan, is good to see you." He pats him on the back. "Glad I found you."

"Well come inside. We've got a lot of catching up to do." Bryan welcomes the two of them inside the hydroelectric plant.

"Thank you Bryan. Would you mind if we stayed here a few days? We are waiting on some friends to meet us here." Kai decided to keep out the details about the friend being Regan, leader of the fireflies.

"Yah of course." Looks over to Aubrey who is hanging closely behind Kai. "It's nice to meet you little lady. Must have quite the story if you are hanging out with this guy."

She shrugs. "It's Aubrey. Thank you for having me here."

"So… what exactly is your story?" Bryan looks back and forth with the two.

"It's… kind of a long story." Kai stretches although his scruff on his face.

"Meh, not really. I'm just extra baggage and a paycheck for him." Kai gives her a warning glare.

He forces out a laugh. "Pay her no mind. She likes to joke around. She even carries around a joke book."

Bryan starts laughing. "Oh man, you must piss him the hell off." He pats Aubrey on the back.

"Only all the time." She smiles kindly at Kai who is already annoyed that he introduced her to him. "Isn't that right, honey bun?"

"Well let's talk sleeping arrangements. Unfortunately you guys will have to stay here a bit since you are waiting on your friend. I have to take in consideration of my people and their sense of safety. Because of that, it's limited on space… in fact it's just a mattress in an office."

"Beats sleeping on the ground." Aubrey states. Bryan leads them to where they will be staying at.

"Make yourselves comfortable. When you get the chance Kai, I would like to sit down and catch up." Kai nods before he shuts the door to the office.

Kai immediately turns to Aubrey and glares at her. "Are you insane? Saying that you're baggage and a paycheck? I may trust Bryan but I don't trust the listening ears around him. If people figure out what you are, they won't hesitate to kill you."

"Relax Kai. It was only a joke to poke fun at you. And besides, look what it took for you to even believe that I was immune?" Aubrey takes off her pack. In two seconds flat he pins her to the wall.

"I don't care if no one would believe you. I'm not about to risk finding out. Now listen to me when I say, is willing tie you up and leave you here until Regan comes."

She pushes him off. "I wouldn't tell anyone anyways." She is about to leave when she turns back to say one last thing. "You know Kai, you don't always have to put on the tough guy asshole act around me. I've been either you long enough to see all sides of you." She slams the door.

Kai sighs and rubs his face. "Shit."

* * *

The next day, a commotion is heard outside by the gate. Aubrey was eating an apple with Kai when she looked up towards the barricade. "Hm? What's going on?"

Kai gets up and motions for her to stay. "I'll go help out." Kai runs up to the barricade, climbing to the side where Bryan is on.

"These the friends you were talking about?" Bryan asks him with his gun trained on the two people trying to enter.

Kai peaks over and gives a half smile. "Yep. Sure is." He jumps down and opens the door.

Regan runs over and glomps Kai into a hug. "Glad to see you. Where is Aubrey? Is she safe?"

He points back to the spectator keeping their distance for safety. "Yes."

Aubrey tries to look around Kai to see who it is. When she sees who it she drops her apple and runs as fast as she can with tears peeking out of the corners of her eyes. "Regan!" They both run into each others arms, so glad to be reunited.

Ray comes into the barricade. "Glad to see you guys made it this far." He goes over to Kai and pats him on the back. "Guess you're no amature."

Bryan climbs down and introduces himself. "Hey nice to see you all. I'm Bryan. Any friend of Kai's is a friend from mine." He can see that everyone seems so concerned with Aubrey. "So what's so special about Aubrey?"

Regan stuttered and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Uh she's pregnant. With Kai's child."

Both Aubrey and Kai look over at her baffled. "Pre…. What?" Regan gives them both a quick glare. Kai takes her glare and gives her, his death glare.

Aubrey goes over to Ray and give him a hug. "I'm glad to see that you are okay. Thank you for caring for Regan."

"Of course. We hauled ass to get here. I've never gotten across country this fast before, ever."

A crowd starts to gather at the commotion and everyone is curious with the new people from the outside. A girl pushes her way through the crowd to stand in front of them. "Kai?"

Kai looks over to the girl who said his names and his eyes widen in shock. "Hilary?" She runs over at the sound of her name and hugs him. "I heard that you were captured by the bandits. I thought the worst happened."

"I was able to escape. Guess you underestimated me. I'm stronger than I look. " Takes another look at Kai. "Oh Kai, I'm so glad you are okay." She leans up and kisses his cheek.

Aubrey raises her eyebrow at the display of affection.

Kai pushes her back. "Uh Hil." He shakes his head.

Regan chimes in at that point. "Uuuuuuhh… hey have you met Aubrey? She's pregnant… with his child."

"What?" She looks over as Regan who then motions to Aubrey who gives her a nervous half wave. "Pregnant?..." She backs up a bit with a sad look in her eye. "Oh… well um… congratulations. I'm glad to see that you were finally able to move on after what happened to Stacy." She gives him a sad smile.

"Bound to happen eventually." The two of them awkwardly walk away from one another.

* * *

The four of them all cramp into the office space.

"Week that was an awkward encounter with your ex." Aubrey chimed in.

"She ain't even an ex. Just a girl who hasn't gotten over a childhood crush." He shrugs and leans back against the wall. He glances over at Regan and Ray who had fallen asleep, leaning against one another. "Those two seem to be close now."

"Yah. I wonder what happened?..." She got real quiet for a moment. "But maybe some things should be left unsaid." He nods in agreement.


	16. Chapter 16

Kai had been back and forth with his decision. He wanted to make sure that it truly would be the best decision. With what happened to Aubrey at the bandit camp, he couldn't find it in himself to keep looking at Aubrey as a job or another paycheck. Once he finalized his decision, he went over to Bryan, making sure to do so while Aubrey was still sleeping. "Hey, you got a minute?"

"Yah sure man." He turns to the workers who are trying to get the hydroelectric plant up and running. "I'll be back guys. Keep up the good work." Bryan starts walking to a private room and shuts the door. "It's crazy. If we can get this place up and running, we are going to electricity." He chuckles and pulls out a chair for Kai and himself. "So what is it you want to talk about?"

Kai gives a long sigh, hoping that what he is about to say, truly will be for the best. "The story we told you about Aubrey… is a lie. She isn't pregnant and we aren't together. But she's special."

"Come on Kai, just spit it out already. I already knew it was a lie."

"She's immune." That stops Bryan dead in his tracks.

"What? Now don't lie to me or poke fun because I once ran with Regan's crowd." Kai shakes his head at them.

"I didn't believe it at first either. But Bryan, I have seen her breath in enough spores to kill at least a dozen men and it doesn't even affect her." Bryan stares at him for a long time.

"So what is it that you want?"

"I need you to take her the rest of the way for me. To the firefly head quarters." Kai watches every reaction on his face.

"The hell? You're asking me to risk my life? This ain't the old days, Kai. I have a family now. I can't just leave them."

"Look Bryan, you owe me! I helped you survive back in those days!"

Bryan stands up. "Those days gave me nightmares. I don't owe you shit!" He takes a deep breath to try and calm himself down.

"Bryan, I need this!" Kai looks at him with pleasing eye. "I can't… I can't take her there."

Bryan shakes his head. "Why? Tell me why you can't take her and I'll think about it. Think being the key word here."

Kai leans against his hands. "It's not who I am. I went and burnt down an entire city to get to her. I just don't know if I could let her go once we reach the fireflies."

Bryan stares at him for a second quietly then sighs. "Let's me talk it over with my wife. And I'll get back with you."

Kai nods. "Thank you."

"Just so you know, she is nothing like Stacy. I can tell that, that girl will fight to her last breath."

"Yah. I know that more than anyone. I just can't get caught up in all this." He touches the scar on his chest, left from being shot.

"You do realize that they are probably just going to draw some blood. Maybe do some x-rays and that's it." A siren starts going off. "Shit!"

"What's that mean?" Kai stood up, alert.

"Means bandits broke in."

"Shit, Aubrey!" Kai grabs his gun.

"You still know how to kill people right?" He grabs his rifle. He runs out and finds a spot to duck down when the bandits starting shooting.

"Never stopped." He follows close behind, shooting his way to Aubrey.

* * *

Before the sirens went off, Ray and Regan were enjoying their breakfast. "You know, maybe we should come up with a back story. Just in case someone asks."

"Ray, I don't think we are going to be here long enough for people to ask about our past." She wipes her mouth.

"Well what if after we get done with saving the world, we come back here."

"What's this 'we' part? I have to run the fireflies and it's gonna take take a lot to try and rebuild the world once we have the cure." She looks at him then sighs. "Fine. Want to be married?"

"Eh… I was thinking like boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean aren't we moving a bit fast." He smirks at her.

She scoffs and nudges him. "Ha ha. Very funny." The sirens go off and she grabs her gun. She can hear shooting in the distance. "Are they getting attacked?"

"Bandits, it sounds like. I'm gonna sneak around and see if I can flank them." Ray ducks down low and sneaks up on a couple bandits, crushing their necks while strangling them.

Regan stays out of sight. "Dammit. I need to find Aubrey. Make sure she is okay." She starts making her way back to the office they were staying at. She takes out a bandit that found her shooting him in the chest. After a few minutes the shooting stops. Regan huffs a sigh of relief and keeps walking to the office.

Ray makes his way back to Regan to make sure she is okay. He notices a bandit on the ground near her starts stirring, not quite dead. He watches in slow motion as the guy lofts his gun and points it at Regan.

Ray bolts at full speed and pushes her out of the way in time for the gun to go off.

Regan turns back seeing the bandit and this time shoots him in the head. "That was close wasn't it." She looks over to Ray when he doesn't answer and notices blood dripping. "Ray!"

* * *

Kai made his way to Aubrey who was hiding with with a couple other people including Bryan's wife. When Aubrey sees him she runs to him. "Oh Kai, it was crazy! These bandits started jumping through the window and we knocked over the table in time and we started taking them out. Pew pew. One by one…"

"Aubrey…. Aubrey!" He interrupts her in her story telling and grabs her shoulders to get her to stop moving and for her to look at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yah… yah of course Kai." She smiles up at him.

Bryan watches their display and sighs. "Shit. Maria I'm gonna have to talk to you." Bryan takes his wife out somewhere with a little less people and talked to her about taking Aubrey the rest of the way to the firefly head quarters.

Kai watches them from a distance, leaning against some rubble and they argue about it.

Aubrey comes up beside it. "Is that about me?"

Kai avoids looking at her. "We'll talk about it later."

She can hear part of the arguments and gets the gist of what's happening. "Yah… later." Hurt, she walks off.

Maria shortly after storming towards Kai. He braces himself. "Here we go," He whispers.

"If anything happens to him," she angrily points her finger at him, "It's on your hands!" She storms off.

Bryan walks over to Kai scratching his head. "She doesn't mean it. Did you already tell Aubrey?"

Kai looks at the ground and huffs a sigh, getting off of the rubble. "No. I'm gonna do that now."

Regan comes angrily storming towards Kai. "What the hell is it now?" He once more braces for an attack.

"What the hell did you do!? Why did I just see Aubrey steal a horse and ride off!?" This baffles both Kai and Bryan.

"What? God dammit, Aubrey."

Bryan starts running ahead of them. "I'll get you guys a horse."

"It will only be Kai going. Do what I paid you to do." She jabs a finger into his rock hard chest.

"You're not going?" Her face turns sad.

"Ray got shot in the shoulder. I'm going to stay with him." She snaps at him. "Hurry up! You're wasting time!" He jumps at her command and follows Bryan who hands him a horse.

"Good luck man." Bryan slaps the horses behind and watches Kai ride off.


	17. Chapter 17

Kai rides up to a farm house and sees one of Bryan's horses tied to the porch. He jumps off his horse, tying it to the porch and rushes into the house. "Aubrey!?" When he doesn't hear an answer he starts busting down doors of the house. "God dammit Aubrey! Answer me!"

Aubrey was up in one of the upstairs rooms when she hears Kai busting through the house. She sighs looking at the necklace of wedding bands she stole from Kai's pack. "I'm up here."

When Kai hears her answer he runs upstairs to the room she's in and sighs when he sees that she is fine. "Get up. We're leaving." He gestures for her to follow him.

She doesn't move from her spot by the window. "And if I say no?"

He turns to her and gives her a warning glare. "Do you even realize what your life means? That doing a stunt like this, putting your life at risk. That's pretty god damn stupid."

"Then I guess we're both pretty disappointed with each other then." She gets quiet.

"What do you want from me? How many close calls have we had?" He gets closer to her.

"Well we seem to have been doing good so far."

"And now you will be doing even better with Bryan. He knows the area better than I do. And I trust him more than I trust myself."

She gets up and shakes her head at him. "Oh don't give me that bullshit! What are you so afraid of? That I'm gonna end up like a runner or clickers? I can't get infected! I can take care of myself." She throws his wedding bands at him and talks real low. " I'm not her, you know."

Kai is almost shocked by her bringing up Stacy. "Aubrey," He says in a warning tone. "You are treading on some mighty this ice."

His threats don't phase her anymore. "I'm sorry about your wife, Kai. I really am, but I have lost people too."

"You have one idea what loss is!" His eyes turn dark.

She scoffs at him. "No idea? Everyone I have ever cared about has either died or left me…" She goes up to him and starts angrily hitting his chest. "Everyone... fucking except you!" She calms down and leans on his chest. "So don't tell me that I would be safer with someone else because the truth is that I would just be more scared."

Kai reaches up his arms almost like he is going to hug her back but instead pushes her off him. "You're right. You're not my wife. And I sure as hell ain't your husband." His voice gets low and angry. "And we are going our separate ways. Now I'm not going to say it again." He motions to the door, grabbing his necklace.

Aubrey can feel the tears burning her eyelids but she takes a deep breath and holds them back, keeping her head held high. Without another word she goes down stairs and gets on her horse, following him back to the plant.

* * *

Once they get back, Bryan offers Aubrey a hand. "Do you need help getting down?"

In a monotone voice, Aubrey shakes her head. "Got it." She hops down and makes her way back to the office. Kai sighs as he watches her walk off.

Ray and Regan watch as they return. "You think those two will be okay?"

Regan shrugs. "I don't know." She looks over to Ray and looks at his wound. "You really shouldn't be up right now."

"For the last time Regan, I'm fine. I was just shot in the shoulder. Besides, the drugs they have are really strong." He nudges her with his good shoulder. "So don't worry about me." She still gives him a worried look. He sighs. "Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Stop making that face or I'll make you change it."

"And how exactly would you change my facial expression?"

"Like this." Ray leans over lifting her chin as their lips touch.

Surprisingly she doesn't resist and is actually enjoying the savory flavor of his lips on hers. He pulls away from her and smirks. "Maybe you should make worried faces more often."

She shakes her head and blushes. "Always gotta ruin a moment, don't you."

* * *

Kai is sitting on some steps, staring at the wedding bands, twirling them through his fingers. While staring at them, all he could think about was Aubrey and everything that had went down between them from the first time they met to the incident that happened yesterday morning at the farm.

 _"Everyone I have ever cared about has either died or left me. Everyone… fucking except for you!"_ Her voice rang in his head.

Kai looks up and notices Ray walking towards him. "Did Regan send you?"

"No." Kai gave him a look. "Okay yes. But I insisted on being the one to come talk to you." He sits down next to him. "Man, this journey is fucked up. I think I've aged 10 years from it." He looks at some of his hair to see if there is any gray hairs growing.

"What do you want?"

Ray stares forward. "To let you know that we are about to leave… We all had our reasons for taking on this task. I'm in it because I want to be the one to say I helped find the cure. Regan is in it because Aubrey is the saving grace for the fireflies, being that she preaches hope for all people. Aubrey is in it because she feels like she has some sense of duty to the world. Being the cure can't be easy. I don't think I would be strong enough to carry that burden around." He finally looks over to Kai. "And you… you were in it originally for ration cards and weapons. But I see now that, that's changed." He pauses for effect. "I see now that while the rest of us were in it for the world, you were in it for her." Ray stands up and grunts a little from the pain in his shoulder. "You should at least say goodbye."

Kai watches as Ray walks off then looks back down at his wedding bands. He clutches them in his hand so hard, his knuckles turn white. Then… he throws them over the barricade wall.


	18. Chapter 18

Bryan saddles up two horses, one for Aubrey and himself, the other for Regan and Ray. "You ready to go?" Aubrey shakes her head staring at the ground. "Well… hop on up" She complies and gets up on the horse. Bryan goes over to Ray and Regan to help him up onto the horse since he is short a full functioning arm.

While his back is turned, "someone" gets on the horse behind Aubrey.

It takes a moment for her to realize that it's not Bryan who's saddled up behind her. He puts his arms around her and takes the reigns. He can hear her sniffles and feels a few drops of tears fall on his hands. "I'm sorry. I promise you that you won't have to do this alone." He whispers into her ear.

When Bryan turns back around he almost jumps out of his skin. "Kai… what are you doing?"

He takes a moment to answer him. "Your wife kind of scares me. I don't want her coming after me."

"Well shouldn't we at least discuss this first?" Bryan almost seems relieved that Kai changed his mind.

"You know me. My minds all made up."

"Well…" He smiles at them. "Best of travels to you." He turns to leave but then turns back. "Oh and Aubrey, he won't admit it but he he needs you to help him survive. Not the other way around."

The four of them say their goodbyes and start heading towards the lab at the fireflies head quarters.

* * *

They set up camp in the middle of the night and Ray is taking the first watch while everyone sleeps. Well except Regan who keeps tossing and turning.

She finally gives up and goes to sit with Ray. "What's on your mind?" Ray inquires as he grabs her into his lap.

"Just about everything that has been going on. And about Aubrey. The closer I get to the lab, the more I'm worried about how things will turn out."

"How so?"

"I keep telling myself that all they will need from Aubrey is a drop of her blood…" She looks over to Aubrey who is snuggled close to Kai. "But something tells me, that we are going to have to take more that just blood."

"Well… she was prepared for that since the beginning. I wouldn't say anything to Kai about those thoughts."

"Why's that?"

He stays quiet for a moment, then lowers his voice just in case other ears are listening. "You remember that town we went through, that was basically burnt to the ground, and what we found on the other side of that city was Aubrey's bloodied hoodie?" She nods. "All we saw were burnt dead bandits. Every last one. I honestly don't know what happened there, but I theorize that Kai was the one that killed every last one of those bandits and then burnt it to the ground. I know that you trust him to protect Aubrey, but I'm starting to think that Kai is the type of guy who is willing to do anything, even lose his humanity to protect someone he care about. Those type of people are extremely dangerous. What do you think will happen when the lab people find out that they may have to end up killing her to get a cure? Do you really think he would hand her over quietly?"

Regan sighs. "It doesn't matter what he does. He will be controlled. No matter what control means. He is either going to have to see the bigger picture or get killed. There's more at stake here than just a love life."

Ray huffs. "Yah I just hope he will see it that way.

* * *

They finally make it to Denver Colorado. They can even spot the lab at this point.

"Can't believe we finally made it?" Aubrey says in amazement.

"Well we're not quite there yet. Come on." Ray taps the horse and Regan and Ray speed off.

Aubrey waits for Kai to follow after them but instead he holds the horse back. "What are you doing?"

"….We should look for some supplies. Don't worry. We will catch up." He hops off the horse then helps Aubrey get down. "Plus, riding that horse all this time, is really starting to get to me." He starts rummaging through some cars and Aubrey follows suit.

Aubrey sighs. "I'm not finding anything, Kai. By now every car has already been picked clean."

Kai nods. "Yah… you're right." He keeps having conflicted thoughts and it's starting to show on his face.

"What's wrong?"

He almost looks like he was about to tell her it then change his mind. "Nothing. Let's get back to the horse."

Aubrey watches his jog off to the horse and shakes her head and sighs, following after him.

Kai puts his foot on the stir up, about to pull himself up and he stops and turns to Aubrey. "You know, we don't have to do this, right?"

Aubrey shakes her head. "After all that we've been through…" She looks off into the distance as if remembering the past. "What other option is there?"

"We can go back to Bryan's." He says it a little to eagerly. "We can forget this whole thing and just start over there."

She sighs, and gives him a sad look. "After everything that we've... after what I've done... it can't be for nothing. Look I know you mean well but we're half way done with this. Once we're done, I'll go wherever you want to, okay. But for now, let's keep going."

He nods his head. "You're right." He scratches the back of his head and gets on the horse, helps her up, then gallops after Regan and Ray.

* * *

 **Oh my glob! I can't believe how close we are to the end! It kind of makes me sad. :(**


	19. Chapter 19

"Well…" Ray says while staring into the tunnel that will lead them right to the lab… and is flooded with water. "I guess this is as far as we take the horses. Unless horses can swim."

"Uh…" Aubrey looks at the water flowing through the tunnel. "We may have a problem. I can't swim."

"Guess you should learn fast." Ray smiles at her.

She gives him an annoyed look. "Yah let me get right on with putting on my swimming boots."

Kai sighs. "We'll be fine. Looks like we might be able to get through by climbing on semis and some of the vents." He takes her hand to guide her. "And if we fall, just hold onto me as tight as you can. I won't let anything happen to you."

She takes a deep breath and tries not to think about the rushing water as she climbs onto the shaky busses. Regan and Ray follow a little ways back, thinking that putting to much weight all at once could possibly collapse the already rickety bridge made of busses.

Kai let's Aubrey get in from of him when they climb on top of the vent. "Steady now."

"Kai, that's a big jump." Her voice is shaky as she looks over the end of the vent to a bus that load like it's holding on by the mirror. She feels the lump in her throat and tries to swallow it down. Panic was staying to set it.

"It's okay. I'm right here. Go ahead and jump. It'll hold." She nods her head, taking a deep breath.

The jump down made the bus sway a bit but it ended up being okay. She tried to walk as softly as possible to the other side where there was a maintenance ledge.

Kai tries to jump down softly but the sway from the jump is too much and the bus gives in and starts to roll. "Shit! Aubrey grab my hand!"

Aubrey falls into the water and starts flailing around, trying to stay afloat but the current kept dragging her under. Kai falls into the water as well being pulled by the current. He reaches out to Aubrey but she keeps getting swept farther and farther from him.

"Oh my god! Ray what do we do? We have to go after them." Regan watches then being swept away.

"Going after them like this could kill us."

"What other choice do we have?" She takes a deep breath and jumps in.

Kai got swept up to the end of the tunnel where the tide finally slowed down. He gasps for air, then looks around for Aubrey. When he doesn't see her anywhere he starts to really panic. "Aubrey!" He takes a deep breath and dives down. He sees her passed out and sinking to the ground. He swims over to her and drags her to the edge of the water. "Aubrey?" He puts his ear to her mouth. "Shit. She's not breathing." He starts pumping her chest to try and rid the water in her lungs. "Come on, baby. Stay with me now."

"Put your hands up!" A man in police armor comes into view with his gun trained on Kai.

He shakes his head and keeps pumping her chest and breaths in her mouth. "She's not breathing. Please wake up."

"I said to put your hands up!" When Kai doesn't comply the guy goes up to Kai and hits him hard with the butt of his gun, causing him to black out.

* * *

Regan breath heavy, glad that they finally made it to the lab. She looks at Kai who is laying on a hospital bed. "Geez Tim, did you have to hit him so hard?" The firefly shrugs.

A doctor comes in the room. "Hi, Regan could I have a word with you."

"Yah sure. Ray, come on." She waves for him to follow her.

"This may be a matter that we discuss in private." He looks to Ray questioningly.

"Don't worry. I trust him with whatever information you provide." The doctor nods his head and leads them to his office.

"I have good news and bad news. We ran some tests and did some x-rays on Aubrey. It truly is fascinating. We now know why she is immune and that we can definitely create a vaccine… that's the good news." He gets real quiet.

"An the bad news?" Ray asks.

The doctor sighs. "The infection has crusted over her brain, making her immune… We could havr to cut into her brain to be able to get enough samples to create a vaccine."

"Wait wouldn't that kill her?" Ray looks over to Regan. "You cant be okay with this. And I sure as hell know that Kai won't be okay with this."

Regan stayed quiet for a long time, running what the doctor just told her through her head. She finally closes and eyes, takes a deep breath, and when she opens her eyes, they are full with conviction and certainty. "Go ahead doctor. I… I know that this is what she would have wanted."

The doctor nods and begins leaving the room so he can prep for surgery. "I will do everything I can to make sure that she is comfortable when she goes."

Ray waits for the doctor to leave. "This. This right here was my biggest fear. The cure may have been found, but at the cost of losing a friend."

"You don't have to tell me that. This is harder for me than you know. I was with her for so long before you joined us. I got close to her." She sighs. "And now for the greater good… I'm going to have to let her go."

"…. What are you going to tell Kai?"

"The truth." She goes back to his hospital room and waits for him to wake up.

Kai grunts and then Jerks awake, ready to fight until he sees Regan in front of him, sitting down leaning on her hand.

"Welcome to the fireflies. Sorry about the…" She points to where the guard hit him. "He didn't know you were with me."

Kai looks around the room and glares at the guy who hit him. "Where Aubrey?" He almost jumps out of his bed when he realizes she isn't there with them.

"She's with the doctors…" She sees the relief he has when she says that. "… getting prepped for surgery."


	20. Chapter 20

Kai couldn't believe his ears. "Surgery? The hell you mean surgery?" He gets up and stands in front of her.

Regan leans forward. "We found it. The reason she is immune. The cordecepts are mutated. It's why she's immune." She gives him a happy yet sad smile.

"But it grows all over the brain." He gets quiet when he realizes what she meant by surgery.

"Yah… it does."

He shakes his head. "Find someone else."

"Don't you get it?! There is no one else!" She shoots up and starts pushing him back. She takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I get it. But whatever it is you think you're going through, is nothing compared to what I have been through." He shakes his head in disbelief. "I knew her before I even knew about the bite. When I found out, I was so happy. But I also knew the risks."

"Why are you doing this?" He gets real still contemplating his next moves.

"Because this isn't about me! Or even her! There is no other choice here, Kai."

"Yah, you keep telling yourself that bullshit." He gives her a dark glare.

She shakes her head then looks to Ray. "Get him out of here. If he tries anything, shoot him?" Ray is taken aback by her demand, but nods in understanding as she leaves to go mourn the death of her friend.

Ray sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "You know this is what she wanted."

Kai scoff. "What she wanted or what Regan wanted? You said yourself that Aubrey was Regan's saving grace for her cause. So don't feed me that bullshit. Aubrey wanted to thrive and SURVIVE! Not end up like some science experiment."

Ray started raising his voice. "Point blank Kai, your job is over. Congratulations on another smuggling job." He jabs his gun into Kai's back to get him moving. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

Kai shakes his head and starts walking till be sees his pack and then stops.

"Kai, what the fuck are you doing? Keep walking." He jabs his gun into his back again, and he does, Kai elbows the gun out of the way and elbows Ray smack in the face, giving him a broken nose. Kai pins him to the wall, grabbing his gun and holds it against his stomach.

"Now, tell me where she is?! Where is the operating room?" Ray stays silent. "Ray, I swear to god…"

"Fuck you Kai." Kai shoots him in the stomach and Ray starts coughing up blood.

"I said where!?" Kai shakes his head. "I don't have time for this. I'll make sure to say goodbye to Regan for you." He backs off of Ray, and shoots him in the head.

* * *

The gun shots alerted the other guards and Kai could hear their shouting. Kai grabbed his pack and ducked out of sight of the guards. He began sneaking around and killing off the guards one by one till be finally made it to the upper level of the hospital lab. Luckily for him, only one room was lit up.

He bursts into the room and sees Aubrey in a hospital gown, knocked out from and connected to tubes.

"Hey! What are you doing here? This area is restricted." Kai pulls out his gun and aims it at the doctors and nurses. "Look son put your gun down. You don't understand what you're doing." Kai scoffs and narrows his eyes at the doctor.

"Shut the hell up." He shoots him and then goes over to the pleading nurses and puts them out of their misery.

Kai goes over to Aubrey and starts taking out her IVs and tubes. "I made it. Just in time. You're gonna be fine Aubrey. I'm gonna get you out of here." He could hear voices coming towards him, yelling orders to search for him. "It's gonna be alright. I've got you." He picks her up and starts running for the elevator, dodging the bullets shot at him. He impatiently waits for the elevator to make its way to the car garage.

As he steps out of the elevator, Regan is waiting for him with a gun pointed at him. "I can't let you do this, Kai. Just put her down and leave her with us."

"No, I won't let you do this to her."

"Would you rather her live in this world? Would you rather her get raped by bandits? Or torn apart by a pack of clickers?" She's crying and is desperate for him to just give up. "At least this way, she ell die peacefully,she eons feel any pain. This is what she wanted. And you have no right to take this away from her."

"No! This is what you wanted!" He shakes his head. "I wont let that happen. I'll protect her." He shoots her in the gut from the gun he was hiding underneath Aubrey's legs. He opens the car door and gently sets her down in the back seat. He then turns back to Regan, who is crawling, trying to get away.

She puts up a hand in front of her when he points his gun at her. "No wait! Please let me go! We won't come after you. You won."

He stands there and thinks of what would happen if he left her alive. "You know I can't do that. You would just come after her." He shoots her in the head.

* * *

Kai hears Aubrey stirring in the back seat. He looks through the rear view mirror and sees her lean up and hold her head.

"Where are we?"

"Were heading to Wyoming. Back to Bryan's."

She looks around and sees that they are on the road. "What happened?"

Kai is silent for a moment, trying to choose his next words carefully. "Well… Regan didn't need you anymore. Turns out that there are a whole lot of other people just like you, immune. A lot of damn good it did though… I'm sorry Aubrey but they've stopped looking for a cure. I'm taking us home."

Aubrey's mind was still a bit hazy from the drugs but she still heard every word that he said. She laid back down, too depressed to even think about all of the trials and turbulence that they had been through, all for nothing.

 **The END!**


	21. Epilogue

**Just kidding. Here's the epilogue. Enjoy.**

* * *

They drove until they ran out of gas, then went the rest of the way on foot. Ever since Aubrey woke up, she barely ever talked. She would often stare randomly at different objects till Kai yelled to get her attention. Once in a while he would even catch her touching her bite mark. If she ever did respond it was always one word answers.

Kai sighed and stopped to look at the scenery. "It's actually kind of pretty ain't it."

"Yah." She said dryly without actually looking up. They reach the edge of the mountain and just on the other side you could see the compound ran by Bryan just on the other side. Kai jumps up to get on the ledge that will lead to a trail back down and turns to help Aubrey.

"Grabs on…" He waits a few moments but she doesn't grab on. He peeks over the edge at her staring off again. "Aubrey!" She turns her head to him. "Let's go."

She grabs onto his hand and pulls her up over the edge.

"Alright. Come on." He starts walking.

Aubrey stops. She looks down and starts nervously messing with her hands. "What's left of us?" She says almost in a whisper. He stops and turns back to her, waiting for her to say what she needed to say. She let's out a heavy sigh. "I never told you about how I got bit."

"It doesn't matter…" She cuts him off.

"Yes it does. Back in Boston… when I was bitten… I wasn't alone. My sister was there and she got bit too. We didn't know what to do. We were each others world. We did everything together. I raised her by myself in a world full of infected when I was just 5 years old… So when we got bitten she said 'let's just wait it out. You know, we can be all poetic and just lose our minds together.'" She pauses, letting the memory glaze past her eyes. She looks up at him and looks directly in his eyes. "I'm still waiting for my turn."

"Aubrey…"

"Her name was Alley and she was the first to die. And then after that, everyone I knew, died. I just…" She shakes her head. "I need to know that everything you said about the fireflies is true."

"None of this is your fault." He tries to change the subject.

Aubrey forces him to look at her. "Swear to me!"

He pauses for a long time, struggling with what to say. Then gives her a fierce look. "I swear."

"…..Okay."

* * *

 **I hope you all enjoyed! It was so much fun writing this!**


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